Discarnate

I don't usually write reviews unless I feel very strongly about the movie or I feel the other reviews are mostly nonsense from people who either didn't actually watch, pay attention, or understand the movie. Consider this the latter.

Discarnate was not at all difficult to follow or confusing in any way. If you actually pay attention, as another reviewer pointed out, the characters explain everything that they've set out to do as well as everything happening. Personally I thought the creature was very cool and creepy, however minimalist the overall look was, it was still effective.

The production values were fine. Obviously they didn't have a huge Hollywood budget, but it's far from B/low budget, mostly what you'd expect from an independent film. The cast, many of which are familiar faces to the horror genre, including Bex Taylor-Klaus, Josh Stewart, Thomas Kretschmann, and Chris Coy, all did a fine job with their roles. So while, yes, like 95% of horror films in existence, there were some clichés, tropes, and a stretch in believability from time to time, overall Discarnate was a pretty decent horror flick.

My advice, as with every movie, ignore all the reviews (including mine), watch for yourself, and form your own opinion.

There is an outstanding idea at the heart of this film, and somebody gave it considerable thought. The creature itself is well realised and makes more sense than most, although the human characters less so. Supposed scientists undertake an experiment in the least appropriate place possible, with far too many variables - human and rat subjects simultaneously, inconsistent dosage, possible magnetic forces giving false results.

The characters themselves are stereotypes: the head scientist with a tragic past; the hipster female assistant with flawed beliefs (Norse mythology as from an 'isolated culture', when Norse travellers had found Canada half a millennium before anyone else, so knew more of the planet than anybody else); the beautiful but otherworldly spiritualist; the chalk and cheese brothers. I only knew three of the actors. Two were in Hostel 3, the other I recognised but had to look him up - he was the guy from The Collector / Collection.

The story is largely told through dream logic, a mixture of reality and fantasy. There are distorted perspectives, warped timescales, paranoia, shadows and light. The director of photography deserves a paragraph of their own, so here goes.

The camerawork is outstanding for a film with this budget. Terrific use of backlighting to place characters in silhouette, a superb use of colour in various scenes, and believable nighttime activity. Many scenes are almost monochrome but far from black and white. I vividly recall a scene all in brown but for the blue shirt of a character, another vista in a blue wash but for the blood on a victims face. I watched the film at night and was impressed at how much I could see in the darker episodes, but even rewatching by day with the curtains open it was clear the lighting picked out everything relevant but added deep shadows to blur the irrelevant backgrounds and create menace. I have not researched it but I imagine the cinematographer grew up in music videos or making commercials. In one scene close to the end, backlighting makes a male character seem perhaps more excited than he should be, but overall the lighting and camerawork is outstanding, far better than the film deserves.

The makers credit the viewer with intelligence. Hitchcock' definition of suspense was when the audience knows things they desperately want the characters to realise, and this is brave enough to show us the history of the house from the opening scene, although the researchers do not find out until very late. Echoes of The Thing when everyone knows they are dealing with a creature that can appear as one of them; the paranoia is palpable.

The flaws are in the lack of a coherent plot. One brother looks for another, questioning why he would go into a greenhouse when there is absolutely nothing to indicate he has. The other brother then looks for the first brother in the same outbuilding. The ridiculous lack of science shown by scientists is an almost insurmountable disappointment but don't let that put you off. There is so much to praise about this film, right up to the credits rolling, that it would be a shame to dismiss it. Done right, this could easily have been an all-time great.

The first thing I look for is the cast.... seen Josh Stewart of The Collector, The Collection and The Neighbor which was good start. The synopsis looked very interesting but then I pressed play. The story was all over the place, the characters back stories were barely touched and the reveal was a let down like the movie unfortunately.

This movie was a lot better than what I was expecting from the trailer. It has a lower budget but it's by no means "low budget" and there's some really awesome monster effects here. In fact one of the best most original looking monsters I've seen in awhile.

This movie centers around an experiment into the supernatural. In the first several minutes of the film a mans son is suddenly abducted right from his arms by an unseen force and vanishes into the woods. Time jump several years forward and the father is now part of a team exploring the supernatural. He encounters a woman who has a recipe for a tea passed down to her by her grandmother that allows people to see into this supernatural realm through their dreams. They manage to refine this tea into an inject-able serum with far stronger and unforeseen affects. The walls between our dimension and the supernatural begin to fall down exposing the team to all manner of otherworldly events and dangers.

Anything more than that would be a spoiler. Unlike the one of the other reviewers I didn't find this film confusing at all, in fact there are several moments where the events are being very clearly explained and the movie does come to a logical conclusion.

Overall a movie that kept my attention the entire way through, had very decent special effects, strong cast, good camera work, and while not an entirely original story a well fleshed out one. For the horror genre I'd give it a 7.

Edited: I think the people hating on this movie so hard must be too stupid to follow a basic plot. They literally explain what's going on through specific reveals as the movie unfolds. This wasn't a complicated movie, but the people saying this is the worst movie ever or that these are fake reviews are morons.

Discarnate: A team of researchers try out a serum to try to get to the other side, beyond death. At first they wonder if they are hallucinating but then the world around them is affected. Poltergeist effects. They seedeceased relatives, the leader of the team believes that he lost his son to a supernatural entity a decade ago but he sees and converses with a girl wearing an animal mask. Strange monstrously morphing creatures then start to appear. something has crossed over. It's been done before but the monsters are freaky and the colonial style ranch they use ax a base adds to the weirdness. Good effects and the acting is ok , the film has a shaky start due to eccentric editing but i's a sold If unoriginal) horror film. Written and Directed by Mario Sorrenti in his feature debut. 6/10.