Earworm

I had not heard about the 2024 horror movie "Earworm" from writer and director Kyle Kleege prior to sitting down to watch it. But I must admit that the title and cover was interesting, and with it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I needed no persuasion to sit down and give the movie a fair chance.

The storyline and narrative in "Earworm" proved to be amazingly dull. The narrative was slow paced, and there wasn't anything interesting happening. And I have to admit that I gave up on finish watching the movie, because I was bored senseless 22 minutes into the ordeal.

I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list in "Earworm", and that is actually something I do enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie. It is nice to see new faces and talents on the screen, and not accidentally associate them with characters portrayed in other movies.

This movie failed to entertain me on all levels, and this is definitely not a movie that I will be returning to attempt finish watching. Suffering through 22 minutes of nothingness was bad enough, so why prolong the torment with with another 79 minutes? If you are a horror fan, don't waste your time, money or effort on this one.

My rating of "Earworm" lands on a very generous two out of ten stars, and that is based on the fact that the acting performances that I witnessed throughout the 22 minutes I suffered through were actually not bad. But there just wasn't anything to entertain me in the script and storyline, so writer and director Kyle Kleege dropped the ball here.

Bad acting in first 5-10 minutes - the tall dark complexioned guy with the pony tail overdoes the acting right off the bat! As well as the 2 detectives not acting enough. Then you have extras in one of the first scenes when the detective wants to talk to the guy who wrote the book - they are looking directly at the camera as they walk by. The trailer looked better than the movie started out but I couldn't keep watching after those first 5-10 minutes. It must have been someone involved with the making of the movie that gave it the one false good review and it was the only review that I found so give it try if you want but........

A low-budget, character driven, psychological, horror flick with excellent performances and beautiful cinematography and direction. Written and directed by Kyle Kleege, this is his first full length feature and shows incredible talent and a knack for circumventing the films financial limitations with real cleverness and style.

The acting is top notch with standout performances by John Romeo as a self-help guru who may not be as altruistic as he seems, and Even Jones as Hank, a man with a crippling social anxiety disorder. The story mainly follows a pair of cops investigating a series of bizarre murders, and Jones's Hank who goes to dangerous lengths to gain some self confidence. The two stories collide in an interesting and unexpected way and the ending is both thoughtful and shocking.

Although this film works as a horror/sci-fi story, at its core it's really a meditation on loneliness. Highly recommend.