Empathy, Inc.

Not really sure why there are reviews that claim other reviews were bought because they were rating this film with high scores but this is an honest review from a viewer that wasn't paid for. I viewed the movie via Shudder platform the first day it was added. Never read anything about it other than the small description that was on the site so I went into this movie cold. I'm glad I did! I really enjoyed the film. I thought the story was very interesting, yes VR has been done before but this rendition was good. The actors were great in their parts, some better at it than others but nothing amateurish about the performances. Ending was good too. I rated it a 7/10 because I'd definitely recommend this to others and probably would watch it again.

It's stylish, has a pretty unique concept and solid pacing, so it keeps you engaged throughout. However, you need to stretch your willing suspension of disbelief wide enough to drive a truck through, since many of the plot points are maddeningly unrealistic, even by sci-fi standards. Most of the characters are dislikeable, and some of the performances felt a little stiff, but overall there weren't too many shortcomings due to the lack of budget. It's an entertaining enough film if you don't ask too much of it.

No not perfect, but well worth the watch. Enough new here to justify the chance that you still may not like every moment. Take that chance in this case.

If you don't don't like movies in Black and White, just don't watch this, pure and simple, why watch something you know you'll hate? Anyone complaining about Black and White photography here is silly, the black and white does this movie a real service in not only distinguishing it from many other low-budget films, but really does enhance the mood here. As with another movie I recently reviewed "Third Contact", the b&w is a real asset to that movie as well as "Empathy, Inc." It is well-filmed, and has a fairly good usage of closeups, it doesn't overdo them, and it couples very well with the b&w photography.

The script was well-written other than the 2 or 3 small plot holes, which unfortunately, were they tied up, the authors would have had to change some of the story a little bit, that would have not effected it too much on the hole, either way, with movies of this nature, it requires a good deal of suspension of disbelief. Eliminating those plot holes would have elevated it from good to great. The characters are flawed, but still likeable, I was rooting for the lead, I found his wife sometimes irritating, but well-meaning, and by the end, I had a lot of empathy for her, her parents were likeable, and I felt behaved fairly realistically as a pair of loving parents would. One of the well-written aspects of this film was the initial set-up and the introduction of the "investment", there was a lot of excitement in the initial half of the film, and while the film never peters out in terms of pace and excitement, the second half is not nearly as well-written.

The sound and movie are well-used, and the lighting is better than a lot of low-budget films, but given it is using B&B photography, a better usage of shadows and light contrast would have served the film well. The sound editing though is really solid, and so much better than most low-budget films and even soe bigger budget ones, this is one of the areas where it really shines.

The pacing is good, it is never slow, but it isn't fast ether, it moves a very deliberate moderate pace, and this serves to build up tension very well. No, this isn't anywhere near as good as "Primer", but while watching it, I felt some of the same feelings tension and suspense I had while watching that and "Coherence". I was totally absorbed in the film, and very upset when I had to take a break halfway through. I was expecting a film I could wash dishes to, but I ended up just really sitting down and watching it instead. It doesn't have nearly the re-watchable qualities of "Primer" or "Coherence", but the first go round is a lot of fun and very clever in some places.

The acting here is solid, not fantastic, but give credit where credit is due, I watch a lot of low-budget fare, and the acting here is just as good as most big budget films, especially when you consider the amount of closeups used in this film.

I find it to be a glaring hypocrisy when people accustomed to bigger budget films pick on low budget movies for acting that isn't totally stellar, or minor issues with lighting or sound. I don't mean real problems, such as if the audio is so bad you cannot hear what characters are saying, or the lighting is completely washed out, and not for artistic effect, but due to incompetency. There are real complaints you can make about many low budget AND big budget films, so I am not referring to that, but simply, with low budget films, we absolutely should cut them a bit more latitude, if anything our criticisms on big budget studio films should be harsher because they have so many resources at their disposal, and yet they still make really bad movies. While, most of the time, low budget films suffer due to a lack of monetary resources, and often times, skilled people to work on the film, but many times, they make up for it with sheer gumption, ambition, and better ideas.

As a long-time reviewer, I am hesitant to ever say there are fake reviews, but I actually know from my own personal experience that there are, I have talked to at least one low-budget movie maker who admitted it, probably without realizing. So, yes, fake reviews are real. I say all that, because this is one of the first times I agree with the other reviewers on fake reviews, when I originally wrote this review, were 253 ratings, but 44 reviews? Nope, not buying that most of them are legit. The reason I don't buy it is because I regularly review low-budget films, go check out my other reviews and look at comparable review to rating ratio. While there is certainly going to be more reviews on certain movies, that does not explain the disproportional large number at the time of writing the original review. So yes, I believe the first influx of reviews, are mostly written by those affiliated with the film or are friends or family of them. It's a shame because this is a very well-made low-budget film, it deserves a wider viewership and more legitimate reviews, which likely will come in time. It deserves a solid 6 or 6.5 on it's overall IMDB score, the only reason it doesn't get higher for me is because of a few small plot holes, which do make some of the things in the film unravel, they don't generally take away from it's enjoyment overall, but when it's over, you cannot help, but think about them.

I might watch it again, I might not, but I would certainly recommend it people whom enjoy sci-fi, and films that are a little bit different. It has it's flaws and it's charms, but it is certainly worthy of a wider audience, it really is a shame all these fake reviews are on here, it just isn't helping it's reputation and will turn a lot of people off.

God Bless ~Amy

The rating of this movie (5.2 by the time I publish this review) is absolutely unfair. Many of the bad reviews complain mostly about it being in black and white, which I think if a very poor argument to downvote a title so much. They should have known that beforehand and it is very likely that most of them did not even watch the movie, otherwise why would you watch a b&w movie if you don't like b&w?

I'd give it a 7, at the bare minimum, although it may as well deserve an 8, but I'll give it a 9 to compensate the unfair haters.

The story is good, original as far as I know, and keeps your attention. The script, may not be an Oscar winning one, but it is more than decent and believable. The acting is very good, and the end is probably not the best but still reasonably good.

The build-up is not so slow (another complaint in some bad reviews). It takes less than 10 minutes to present the characters and set up the background that leads to the actual story, at which point the VR story is introduced to the viewer.

At minute 30 you already have the feeling there is more to the VR than what the main character has been told. Before the film reaches the equator, the main character is told the guys he is doing business with are fishy, and then the tension rapidly climbs-up.

Overall, a very interesting and recommended movie to watch.