Z

"Z" is a not half bad little horror flick from Canada.

The best way I can describe it is a "Drop Dead Fred" 1991 "Boogeyman" 2005 mash up. Or put another way, the imaginary friend from hell.

Much of what takes place, at first feels psychological but that notion is soon dismissed, as things take a very real turn for the worse.

The atmosphere established in one rooted in family with a child like quality that soon darkens. Family harmony is transformed into violence, menace, terror and a hint of madness. its handled well with solid production values backed by decent acting.

There are at least two scare opportunities, I noted, that could have been developed a little further had extra time been taken to consider what makes horror "tick".

That said, I feel there's a lot more to like here than not. Its creative, subtle and eerily spooky. No small thing in a film world filled with beige knock offs, of knock off's.

7/10 from me.

I watched this movie last night and thought it was pretty good! Keegan Connor Tracy is just such a phenomenal actress and she shines in this film. it's not "scary" per se but the film does have a sense of dread/creepiness throughout much of it. there are a couple of shocking moments in the film that thankfully didn't feel like "jump scares" (i can't stand lame/cheap jump scares). one scene in particular made me gasp and yell out "HOLY CRAP!". lol. it's definitely a good drama/horror movie with very good acting from the entire cast.

Now this review might sound a bit biased for some, I'm genuinely more scared of atmospheric slow-burn horror movies that tend to creep me out and cause goosebumps every now and then, psychological horror works more for me rather than bombastic and annoying jumpscares without substance, now with that said, therein lies the problem.

Z at first glance ticks the right boxes, it reminded me of Babadook, it started to resemble Hereditary which i was ready to embrace it as, but while those comparisons kept upping the ante as they escalated in both tone and their scare factor, Z on the other hand, does nothing despite having a easy to follow plot with one eerie twist that i wish they did more with, since this isn't a spoiler review i wont bother to give any details on that, but it became a make or break situation.

To summarize Z, it had a promising set up, there were genuinely scary moments that made my hair raise, but the last portions alongside no clear direction completely killed the momentum for me.

Final verdict: 6

Had it not been for the promising start and creep factor in some moments, i would've knocked the score by 2 and left it at 4.

If you're going to go up against The Babadook you'd better make sure every aspect about the film is better and this film falls significantly short in every department.

That's not to say it's a bad film, it's just not as good as it could be. The difference between Z and The Babadook is that throughout the Australian horror we are constantly wondering wether the monster is real, but in Z we are pretty much dealt the full on monster creep early on so the sense of mystery and threat is diluted throughout the rest of the movie.

Story aside what really let this down was the poor quality of the special effects. The house fire in particular was laughably bad. The protracted final confrontation with the beast was a bit long winded and I kind of lost interest.

Not unwatchable but not as good as it could have been. If you haven't seen The Babadook definitely watch it after this.

Good suspence at the beginning However it faded further into the movie It could have been better however I've seen worse