Nails

Saw 'Nails', 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 reviewing it.

Unfortunately, despite not reading any reviews purposefully before watching, am going to have to agree that 'Nails' isn't too good, though not terrible. A film that started off good, but ran out of steam very quickly and rapidly got worse by a second half that makes one not want to keep watching. Never judge a film without seeing the whole thing and wanted to give 'Nails', so gave it a fair chance.

'Ghost Nails' best assets were the first fifteen-twenty minutes, 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, and the music, which not the most memorable in the world, didn't detract from the atmosphere.

The setting is effectively spooky and the acting was better than average (apart from Ross Noble, who was annoying), Shauna MacDonald being quite good.

However, so much brings 'Nails' down. The direction is so phoned in and pedestrian, one gets the sense that the director showed no interest in the film at all. Would have liked more chemistry between the actors, which can be put down to directing, tending to have interactions that are both static and awkward, and writing, which really doesn't flow, issues.

Where 'Nails' most underwhelms is the writing and story. The far too exposition-heavy writing is incredibly lazy, it's awkward in dialogue, very confused as a result of not tying things up or going into full detail and doesn't feel complete. The story suffers from a very limp pace after the first fifteen minutes and gets slower and slower until an interminably dragged out second half. It further suffers from feeling too much like a short film stretched out with a lot of useless padding, too many things that don't make sense or under-explained and tiresome repetition. The characters are nowhere near interesting enough, though MacDonald's character is reasonably likeable, and the inconsistent and illogical motivations bring them down. The villain's especially.

For a film billed as a horror, there is very little interesting and nothing remotely scary. They are too few and are far too predictable, anaemic and weakly timed to make impact, with the dull pacing and obvious sound effects cheapening them significantly. 'Nails' doesn't engage let alone thrill, the film started off very well but feels wasted by how quickly everything runs out of steam. The ending is an anti-climactic head-scratcher, like the script it feels incomplete and making sense of it was extremely difficult.

Overall, mediocre but with good points that stop it from being worse. 4/10 Bethany Cox

I think Nails is about 70% complete while the rest was just air pockets. Can't believe it managed to create the genuine horror atmosphere like it supposed to, without delivering a proper finale. It's like the movie decided to hang itself instead of going all the way. It was on the right track!

It's not your usual standard haunting, those come with a good ending. The more of today haunting movie always seem to have a twist. Another character involved, one that stood low for so long and now his crimes are being resurfaced. Nails is a pretty much straight forward production, with plenty of black outs, some attempts at jump scares and a better character development than most. Dialogue is OK, camera works nicely but the script was surely enough incomplete. Just some details missing, but important links that would have offered a proper flow to the movie and would have better connected the viewer to it.

Similar movie, as in one that almost impressed but barely missed the mark sadly, is The Haunting of Helena. If you liked this one be sure to check that one too.

Cheers!

Nails is an Irish horror that rather took me by surprise. Revolutionary? Hardly, but certainly enjoyable.

It tells the story of a woman who after getting hit by a car finds herself partially paralyzed in a hospital bed. Miserable and alone she begins to question if she's truly alone or if a supernatural entity really is stalking her.

Nails hardly brings new stuff to the table and you'll have seen the majority of it before but thankfully it's done better than most and manages to deliver on both quality and scares.

Furthermore why it took me by surprise is that I generally tend not to like British or Irish cinema, they have the habit of following formulas even more generic than Hollywood (And that's saying something).

The film manages to build an atmosphere, a great claustrophobic setting and an interesting background for our antagonist. The setting is also excellent, though it perhaps could have been explored a tad more.

Starring Ross Noble who many will know as a stand up comedian and Stitches in the movie of the same name, Nails is an enjoyable effort in a highly saturated genre.

The Good:

Great antagonist

Quite well constructed

The Bad:

Some moments of sheer stupidity

Some questionable cgi

I was genuinely surprised by the low score and generally unfavorable reviews, I rather enjoyed it. The story was good, the acting was solid, the scares were moderate but we'll delivered, and Ross Noble was genuinely great. A clever premise, with a suitable victim, Dana, having been used to being so fit and strong had her life ripped to shreds by a car accident. It's well paced, it looks good, I can't really find a huge deal to fault, other then the scare scale. Enjoyable, 7/10

For your run of the mill horror fan this is worth a watch. It ticks off all the boxes of your typical haunt story. The story takes place entirely within an oldish hospital after our protagonist is hit by a car while out for a jog and paralyzed. She soon starts to sense that someone, or something, is watching her.

The story has a good pace, it's shot well, the acting and dialogue are fine as are the limited special effects. It's worth a watch on a boring night in the dark but there's nothing original about it so don't expect it to knock your socks off.