Sonata

It's rubbish. More than rubbish. A celluloid turd. Actually, this movie looked like it wasn't made even with film.

It does look very cheap. The girl was a good actress, as was the mother slightly, but there was no good characterisation. It is extraordinarily slow-moving, boring and hugely unrewarding. It said it's an 18, but I didn't see anything to constitute it being an 18. I suppose I wanted shock, scares, blood and nastiness, and I didn't get any of that because it was a psychological horror film.

But even as a psychological horror film it was pants. The script was awful. It was just bad. Plain bad.

Don't be fooled by the cover and watch it. It's awful.

This film was like pulling teeth.Very little happened and each scene just dragged into another. Soap opera acting(apart from the lead girl)and I spent most of the 90 minutes fast forwarding through it. How this film has scored as high as 5/10 is beyond me. Occasionally you unearth a gem with these little known independent films, however this is not it. For supernatural thrillers etc your better off getting The Changeling or any other 70/80 horror.

Hire it at your own risk, but you have been warned. There is a lot better out there and films that are entertaining at least, this one couldn't even be classed as that I'm afraid.

Almost as appalling as Nutbag

This is basically a two-character play involving an overbearing, crazy mother (not a 'crazzzy mutha') who keeps her daughter cooped up in the house, home schools her, tells her thinly veiled threatening stories, and basically has her captive. However, puberty is on it's way and is manifesting itself in the form of a disappearing stranger whom only the daughter can see. If that's the case, however, who's sending strange love letters to the girl?

Sonata isn't easy to sit through - It's gonna be a bore for fans of gory horror, or for fans of people who like films to have any kind of pace to them. On the other hand, if you fancy something different, you might enjoy this one. It's weirdly played out, and deliberately slow, but there's a sense of dread and mystery about it that makes it watchable. There is even the odd fright thrown in, which is perhaps why it's marketed as a horror. The girl has obviously been driven a bit mad by her mother's smothering, and the mother herself is also pretty insane, trying to protect her daughter from the world and failing miserably. I found it worth a watch to see how things played out, and enjoyed it, but be warned, it's not the most action packed film ever.

Good for a change of pace, and well made for a low budget film.

The teenager Megan (Nicole DuPort) is a young woman raised completely isolated and dominated by her deranged and possessive mother, the writer Samantha Fergus (AnnieScott Rogers). Megan lives her life as if it were a fairy tale and without sense of reality, having her education through home schooling with private teachers. When her hormones change her behavior, inclusive with sexuality arisen, she does not have any support from her mother, and she creates an imaginary friend to satisfy her repressed desires and leading mother and daughter to a tragedy.

"Sonata" is a disturbing, dark and cruel psychological drama, showing the sick relationship of mother and her daughter. The movie is not bad, but the viewer is misguided by the distributor that sells this heavy drama as if it were a horror movie, with a typical cover inducing to a horror movie and certainly disappointing the fans of this genre. Therefore, the target audience is absolutely deceived. Nicole DuPort is perfect in the role of a repressed young woman finding sexuality without any orientation or support. AnnieScott Rogers in some moments exaggerates, but also has a good performance. The introduction of this film, with Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata no. 14 ("Moonlight"), gives a touch of class to this good movie. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Gritos de Horror" ("Screams of Horror")

Megan, a beautiful young woman with an incredible innocence(played by award winning actress Nicole Duport)is becoming deeply troubled. It may be that it is the onset of teenage schizophrenia; or it may be the combination of a strange stalker outside and a suffocating mother, but all attempts to cope are defeated by Samantha, an unfeeling cruel narcissistic single-parent(think "mommy dearest" played by actress Annie Scott Rodgers). Once mom's business partner/part-time suitor Allen (played very effectively by actor Tim Halpin) chances a visit to her room, well, all hell breaks out. And that is what this story is....the hell that is Megan's mind. Beautifully shot in High Definition by award winning cinematographer Vance Piper, this is a film that will gain an enduring and loyal audience. Filmmaker Boris Undorf, the writer-director, spent two years in the writing and is the new Hitchcock with this breakout work.Must see all the way through....it is worth it!