Villains

The movie is quick .. has a perfect harmony between the comedy, drama and action... the plot was genuine and the script was so connected and almost flawless ...

Bill Skarsgård was amazing ,, liked him showing his nervous intense comedic act .. he and Maika Monroe were a good duo ,, and Jeffrey Donovan was perfect for the role.

The whole thing might seem small due to the limited set and really small cast but man!! the story shined and expanded that at some moments it leaves you on the edge of your seat.

Anyway,, as I said, Bill deserves this .. even though every time I look at his eyes it kinda still freaks me out 😂😂 but he did amazing. and I hope this does well on the boxoffice.

Excellent direction and brilliant acting by everyone. There are so many small scene details and the way the actors respond to them it's so good. I truly enjoyed this.

"It never got weird enough for me." Villains is not a bad film, nor is it one I regret watching. It is brisk, quirky, and without any offensively glaring issues other than it plays it safe. This little genre film had potential in regards to all aspects of filmmaking (the writing, direction, acting, etc.) but it also had an air of reserve that suggests inexperience. Villains is so concerned with going down easy for the mainstream that it never attempts to be anything past standard. I wanted to love this film in the way I love Funny Games, Bound, and virtually everything by John Waters, but instead I find myself going back to one word when someone asks me to describe Villains... "meh."

It is an interesting story, but the poor choices by the young couple is irritating. Overall, it's good for a brain off entertainment.

I was lured in here by the 84% Rotten Tom score.

It looked promising... all the actors here are very talented. If nothing else, it could have been nicely demented in ways only indie horror dares to aim for.

But there's nothing really here script-wise you haven't seen unless you've just come off the Tom Hanks Mr. Rogers movie. In the past few years we've seen some really creative small production horror/black comedy/thrillers from "Bliss" to "68 Kill" --- movies that take no prisoners (or even spin new angles on old tropes like "Witch In the Window"), and the blood and guts rest stop is a last resort though that can be cool peppered in with well-developed characters and interesting plot twists.

"Villains" really doesn't have any of that. It starts out with Skarsgard and Monroe robbing a gas station, Natural Born Killers lite-style but with some nice cutting and a good chem between the leads. Both are pushing the overacting buttons just a tad, but it seems oddly in character. These are two lost souls who really do think their life is a movie, or they wish it was.

The big problem with these anti-heroes is you're never truly won over by them, but the script desperately wishes you were. Scene after scene we're hoping for something beneath the surface with Mickey and Jules, and we get a glimpse of it in the last few minutes of the movie --- up till then, they never seem engaged enough with each other or what's happening to make you really care. Monroe in particular is natural but oddly restrained. It's almost as if the light tone set at the beginning works against them for the rest of the film. Ditto the "sadistic crazy" couple whose crumbling country home they raid for a gallon of gas. They're bad but not REALLY that bad... hey shading is great but there's no decent story to hang anything on here.

"Villains" is a gigantic wish-wash of this type of soft pedaling. To generate real emotion and engagement you have to take some risks, but Villains plays it safe till an end that stretches all credibility and nullifies the scant backstory Monroe has been given (not a real original one, of course).

This isn't an awful film by any means and maybe some people will find it interesting, original, and off-beat in a warm-fuzzy way.

But if you go in expecting something off-the-wall insane like The Devil's Rejects or as creative as Apple TV+'s "Servant", you'll be disappointed. Or even something as sincere as the Mister Rogers movie, now that I think about it.