Awaken the Shadowman

One of the worst movies I have ever seen. I made my husband watch it just because the reviews were ok at first, but I can only asume that those reviews were from the pleople involved with the film.

This concept had a ton of potential, it was filmed in a neighborhood I love, centered on a subject close to my heart (recovery from wildfires), and the shadowman concept is hard to f*ck up - but even with all of these positive elements this was an absolute disaster. It's slow, it's shockingly poorly acted, the cinematography was basic and the script was a meandering, dull snooze fest. The filmmakers owe me the $5.99 On Demand rental fee, plus the cost of 90 minutes of my life. Shame on you!

Currently half of the reviews for this movie (the earlier half) are 8-10 stars, while the other half is very low. The high ratings are all from new accounts who have written no other reviews. Hmmmm. This is a pretty good indication that the high ratings are coming from people involved with the film, which I think is really shady. I would have given this 5/10, but am rating it lower to counter the obvious astroturfing.

Anyway, this is an OK indie project that does its best to be eerie/creepy/subtle, and I can appreciate that. No part of this production is Hollywood-grade, but that's not always a bad thing. My main gripe is the rushed ending. It feels like they ran out of time/money and had to wrap it up as quick as possible. There are so many things left open. Not "open to interpretation," but completely ignored. Like parts of the story are missing. Near the end everyone is spouting overly cryptic things at the main character, and he keeps saying, "What are you talking about!?" Then someone says, "Now you know. Now you understand." And he's like, "No actually I don't." This is the moment I really connected with him.

Oh, and then right after that exchange, we flash forward an unspecified amount of time, with no explanation of what happened after the cult did its thing, why it was doing the thing in the first place, or how the guy escaped them and got out of the basement. Roll credits. ...ok thanks?

I seriously can't figure out how I managed to watch this from beginning to end! This film is incredibly slow, horrible and very confusing! The story is lacking, with absolutely no explanation for anything! The acting was mediocre at best as well, which made for chronic yawning. The ending was completely horrible with no loose ends tied up. The whole thing made little to no sense and was just overall terrible! Whatever you do, DO NOT watch this film! Oh and P.S. this shouldn't be classified as a horror or thriller since it isn't even remotely terrifying, suspenseful or scary. Crap!

Must be cheap budget, not a good idea for writers to act, or perhaps they were B-Movie actors trying to write, whatever way round it is, this movie didn't get my full attention, it was slow and boring, wish I had taken the other reviews as gospel, and not given it a chance like I always do, 30 minutes of my life I won't get back! I stopped watching live TV because the Adverts were literally wasting my life, a 90 minute movie became 180 minutes; meaning a whole 90 minutes, double the time of the movie is wasted on adverts! My life, that I won't get back, not to mention I am realising, I feel more awake than most people, subliminall messages suppressed perhaps? Any so I stopped, this is like stealing it back! I would rather watch adverts than sit through this drivel though, awaken the shadow man, more like send it to sleep! Certainly if i have trouble sleeping I will now know which movie to turn on! I couldn't make the whole movie, and instead read the full spoiler synopsis, which I wasn't impressed with! If you want to watch it, by all means but if I can save some people from wasting their lives, spending time writing this will be worth it!