Saw 'Tonight She Comes', being fond of horror regardless of budget (even if not my favourite genre) and being intrigued somewhat by the idea. Being behind on my film watching and reviewing, with a long to watch and review list that keeps getting longer, it took me a while to get round to watching and reviewing it.
Giving 'The Sublet' a fair chance with being interest and apprehension, it turned out to be a little better than expected, having seen a lot of bad films recently. Won't say that 'The Sublet' is a great film (mediocre actually) because it isn't and the potential, while not wasted, is not fully lived up to. Considering the large number of films seen recently being mediocre and less and wasting potential, was expecting worse and was relieved that while wanting in a fair few areas it was actually one of my better recent low-budget viewings.
'The Sublet' started off quite well, the first part starting the film off on a promising, unsettling and atmospheric note that really does intrigue.
Production values did have some eeriness and nowhere near as cheap as expected.
The setting is effectively spooky. Initially, there are spooky and suspenseful moments, it isn't dull, and the storytelling initially does intrigue. The acting generally was not bad, Tianna Nori carries the film very well.
However, the story was severely wanting in the second half after starting off promisingly. It is very disjointed and after the promising start the final third especially loses atmosphere, one loses interest and things start to not make sense. Too much of the film is vague and doesn't explore some elements enough, some of which go nowhere or serve much point. It also is uneventful too much of the time and the pace drags.
Ending is unsatisfying, on top of feeling hasty there are too many loose ends hanging in the air and it all felt abrupt. Got the sense that the writers didn't know how to end the film. Would have liked much more tension and suspense (where there is barely any of either in the latter stages), scares could have been more consistent (again nowhere near enough) and some weren't surprising enough and had no atmosphere, the over-obvious sound not helping. The psychological parts of the story were more odd and undercooked rather than creepy and intriguing
Found too the script to lack natural flow and with a fair bit of cheese and blandness going on, and the characters bland with some adopting some annoying and not always logical decision making. There is very little menace or urgency to the conflict and the direction is phoned in.
Overall, mediocre. 4/10 Bethany Cox
