Wild Eyed and Wicked

This film was written, directed and filmed by the same person whose family owns the property on which it is filmed. It's a passion project and I'm sure it's meaningful to him, his wife who is apparently a part of this film and whom part of the story resembles, and is best left in their living room. There is no reason to care about any of the characters and you don't. The dialogue is clunky. The lead actress is the only one who can act and I have to wonder what brought her to star in this film, perhaps some connection with the director.

In short, young woman suffers from nightmares of seeing her mother, with scratches on her face, kill herself in the woods. Why? Don't know. But she's a fencing instructor, always had a fascination with the knights and a story mom tells, and has a lesbian relationship with a girl in the movie who has little acting skills but is probably stunted by the mindless dialogue. It feels like it was inserted to have an LGBTQ character to have enought screen time to have no purpose other than to remind you the film has significant LGBTQ presence.

Girl must go back home to see Dad who is cleaning up stuff after mom's death. A stilted dialogue about a challenging relationship with Daddy and question the entire first 70 minutes of the film - are girl's visions of a monster following her in life and in her dreams real. It relates to her mother possibly also being a demon. Now you'll sit and watch this story do nothing but explore lesbian and daddy relationships until the very end when that question is answered in a very laughable ending that reminded me of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. When other said it's plodding is an understatement, they meant it. And the decent reviews by the few indie reviewers... well... we should know better than to take them seriously. It's a wealthy film school graduate's passion project. Good for him to make a full feature film. While the camera work isn't bad, almost everything else is sadly not worth watching for the rest of us.

I'm not entirely sure what in the world was going on here. Apparently a young lesbian must go to the countryside and wear her mother's armor and fight off some sort of demon thing that's cursed her family for generations. Or maybe not. I'm not sure how said armor remained unrusted sitting in a box in a basement for 20 years, unoiled and unpolished, but nevermind that. I like the idea of someone pulling the St George routine in our modern era, and there was a lot that could have been done with this story had a better director and writer been in charge - maybe explore the family history, or better define what the monster-thing is. The acting could have been worse tbh, so there's that. But the whole story starts slow then slows down more and finally comes to a shuddering halt, all while accompanied by some of the worst cinematic music I've heard since the '80s. I rented this for $6 from Amazon Prime, and I feel like I should get at least $5 back. I really wouldn't waste either the time or money on this film if I were you.

I think most people wanted to see a hot girl sword fighting in armor in medieval forests. That's all the poster's fault. As much as I hate formulas, movie posters are not art, they are templates designed to tell the viewer at a glance what kind of film you are giving them. In that regard, the poster was atrocious.

Instead you get a slow paced thriller about a young woman traumatized by her mother's suicide when she was a child and the subsequent estrangement of her father. The film brings in a demonic force, but it's nothing more than a symbol of the past one must overcome in order to move forward and not a horror element. The actresses are beautiful and actors (all seven of them, perhaps with the exception of the child, but you know.., child actors) do a good job. The mood is appropriate and the sets well done. The film is rich in psychological symbols and I think for someone living similar (but non supernatural) situations, this could actually be therapeutic.

All in all, for the type of movie it is, it's a pretty good movie. I agree that it could have packed more in less time, but sometimes, if you are in the mood, you can get into the atmosphere of a slow burning film and this is exactly that kind of film. If you are impatient to see sweaty chicks grunting while wielding heavy metal swords you will, of course, be disappointed. However, people that would identify with the main characters would actually benefit from the gradual exposure to possible triggers.

Another aspect of the film that unfortunately took something from the overall experience was the fight scenes in the dark. You could barely understand what was going on. It's a small point, but also a relevant one.

Addressing the lesbian elephant in the room, it was by no means woke, and it wove naturally into the plot. Did the film linger a bit too much on the personal relationships of the lead character so that absolutely nothing really happens in the first 45 minutes? Yes. But that has nothing to do with gender politics.

All in all, I think the people that would have enjoyed the film were thrown off by the poster just as the people who would not have enjoyed were lured in by it. It is a good movie that I don't regret seeing, even if it wasn't really entertaining. Good acting and directing.

I don't understand all the hate. No this isn't a super blockbuster horror movie with a huge budget. It's a slow build movie. I like the main character Lilly. She's complex & real. Of course she's pissed. Her dad was an absent father fighting his own battles. We slowly learn the reasons for their estrangement. If you want blood, gore and guts this isn't the movie for you. If you want a movie that makes you think and feel this is for you.

I think the production value is good. The scenery is beautiful. I enjoyed the way things were shot especially in the wooded scenes. The tension build was suspenseful.

The acting was good. I felt the chemistry between Lilly & Willow. As a lesbian myself I liked how the lesbian relationship wasn't a huge focus of the film. It was just part of who Lilly is.

Give this film a chance. In my opinion you won't regret it.

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. The story was pretty intriguing, and it definitely has some good jump scare moments. The acting, especially the lead was good.

All this is taking in to account that there are no big budgets, studios or actors on this project.

With those considerations it really pushes this much higher than the ratings I am seeing on here. I would honestly love to see any of these commenters do something better with the same budget.

It might not compete with big budget movies, but I think the cast and crew should be proud of what they put together.

If you keep these considerations in mind, I think you will enjoy this movie!