अपनी भाषा में प्लॉट जोड़ेंTeenager Isabel Mann is seduced by a violent sect of day-walking vampires. Her classmates start to go missing, attracting two detectives.Things get weird as the disturbed teenager kills at w... सभी पढ़ेंTeenager Isabel Mann is seduced by a violent sect of day-walking vampires. Her classmates start to go missing, attracting two detectives.Things get weird as the disturbed teenager kills at will in the nearby woods. She's aided by head vampire Alejo, and eerily by Isabel's lost mo... सभी पढ़ेंTeenager Isabel Mann is seduced by a violent sect of day-walking vampires. Her classmates start to go missing, attracting two detectives.Things get weird as the disturbed teenager kills at will in the nearby woods. She's aided by head vampire Alejo, and eerily by Isabel's lost mother, an earlier recruit. She's trained in the art of the kill with horrifically bloody re... सभी पढ़ें
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- 3 कुल नामांकन
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The film moves along very slowly, with no surprises along the way. It's pretty easy to tell what's going to happen, because we've seen it before. Many, many times, in many other movies.
Oh wait, there was one surprise.. the horrendous acting of the female lead. I normally wouldn't pick on her, because I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. I know that poor acting can be a result of bad directing, writing, etc. But in this case, while the writing is not great it was sufficient. The directing was at least decent. Which gives our heroine no excuse for slurring her lines to the point of being completely unintelligible. Any lines that are delivered with clarity are done so with the absolute deadpan, emotionless state of a hopeless emo kid. It may fit the film, but it sure is boring to watch.
To be fair, there was some good acting in here. The investigator was great. A real jerk who does his job well, cutting to the heart of the matter with brutal and piercing intensity. Kudos to Neill Flemming, who was clearly the most seasoned actor in this mess.
Of course, the heart of the matter was difficult to ascertain, since the writers didn't feel it necessary to actually understand the motives of any of the characters. That was not important in this movie, only miserable teens were important.
In fact, it had the distinct feeling of trying to one up a certain other much loved teeny vampire film, which shall remain unnamed. Only it fails.
*****SPOILER BELOW*****
Then there was the blond friend, who actually gave a fair performance before she died by being slapped. Yeah, you heard me. Slapped. People sure are delicate in the movies these days.
In the film, "Doll Graveyard" there's a scene where a girl dies by falling three feet. Until now that was the most ridiculous death scene I've ever viewed. But now we have a contender. You can now die by being slapped. Wow.
Frankly, all too little here comes off well. The dialogue and scene writing are often altogether blunt and always rather gawky, especially with Figgis' direction being much the same. The character writing made me ask, again and again, "wait, what?" I trust that the cast would illustrate their abilities if given the chance elsewhere, and I hope that Figgis has developed his skills in the past ten years - yet under his guidance here, the acting is either overcharged or just flounders, and each scene follows in kind. As one example, consider Inspector Witham: All Cops Are Bozos, we know this, and that Figgis spotlights this in his screenplay is a point in his favor as Witham is an incompetent, bullying oaf. On the other hand, for as heavy-handed as the writing and direction is, and for as overzealous as the acting is in turn, scenes with the man just become actively aggravating instead of a meaningful part of the storytelling. As another example, while in the first half scenes set in the park give us the desired blood and horror violence, each instance is either painfully painfully forthright, or wholly robbed of the power it should theoretically boast.
There are some good ideas here, but mostly the storytelling is desperately flimsy; the sinister fun that should arise from the concept is nowhere to be found. The first scene that seemed to actually achieve some much needed vibrancy, and felt like it was coming off just right, came about about the 45-minute mark more than halfway through - but the longer that scene goes on, the more it falls apart for all the stated reasons. The second scene that seemed to achieve a spark, and came off well, arrived ten minutes later - but meets success only in fits and starts before tumbling downhill and ultimately just raising a highly skeptical eyebrow, crashing what remained of my possible favor. The last twenty minutes just sputter out into nothing. I'm supposing there are folks who do enjoy this, but I don't know how they manage it.
I wish those involved only the best, and may they grow in their skills, find success elsewhere, and impress me. 'The ecstasy of Isabel Mann' is dull, poorly conceived, and poorly executed. Whatever it is you think you're going to get out of it, you should keep looking and pass this right on by.