Black Hollow Cage

By all means, this movie looks beautiful. Every shot is masterfully lit and composed, I just wish they put as much work into the screenwriting as they did the look of the film. Someone really wanted to stretch 30 minutes of film into an hour and a half feature film. I'm not sure who was responsible for the final product more; the director/writer, screenwriter, producers; but whoever it was should step away from film, it doesn't seem to be their calling.

I'm all for a slow burn, tense movie, but there are shots like a closeup of a characters face, just breathing, for a solid couple of minutes. Nothing tense or suspenseful happening, just a solid few minutes with absolutely nothing going on. No one in the film talks faster than a few words per minute, and that coupled with the fact that this movie doesn't have any kind of musical score makes it feel like a three hour movie. It was actually painful to watch and this is the first time in a long time that I regret watching a movie.

Overall cool idea, just wasted on a seemingly inexperienced director/writer/producers. Without all the still shots, slow shots of characters just walking around the house, closeups of characters just breathing; this movie would be about 30 minutes long.

It really is a shame when you see something and see a really good idea behind it ... but as the movie goes on realize that it does not do it justice. It's really a shame and the rating from other viewers seem to confirm that sentiment. We get a drama with Science Fiction and mystery touches. There are quite some neat ideas in this movie, even the "repetitions".

But even when you find out about some of the twists (which in itself are really nice), they never blossom into something bigger. It might have to do with budget restraints or other problems/issues I'm not aware of (maybe producers interfering, maybe the screenwriter and/or the director going off the rails. Whatever the case, this feels very burden and the acting may be decent, but can not save this from falling of the cliff and shattering ... A real shame ...

Terrible slow-burner. Cringey and annoying acting, obvious twists and absolutely no pay off. You keep watching it in hopes it'll improve and surprise you but it doesn't. I still can't believe I made it to "mom, mom, mom... Ahh, ahh, ahh...". After that I had to fast forward. If you're an architect, the house will be the only take away. And that's what my 3 is for.

"Black Hollow Cage" is a senseless film that seems to have been written by someone in a bad acid trip. The plot does not make any sense and is indeed a terrible rip-off of the storyline of 1993 "12:01" or "Groundhog Day" or even "The Butterfly Effect", with a repetitive night where things go wrong. The characters are not developed and the viewer ends the movie without understanding who they are and what are their motives. The bizarre situations are not explained and there is no clue for anything that happens. Surprisingly there are IMDB users that seem to have liked this flick. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

If you have enough interesting ideas for a watchable seven minute short film but decide to stretch it out to feature length by simply directing your performers to "walk down the hallway slower...No, even slower than that." you would probably end up with this film. Other directorial notes must have included "Stare longer"; "Wait longer before you speak"; and "Cross the room as slowly as you can - don't worry we're not cutting away!" For the record I am a fan of the long lingering take; of strange original visions; of movies that want to play with complex themes and concepts. And here they might have been going for all of that, and just stumbling badly in the process. Watching patiently is one thing- suffering pointlessly is another. Full disclosure; I finally shut it off after an hour eighteen but unless there was an epic scene with flying penguins, exploding elephants, and a chorus of dancing robots after that I can think of no reason to have subjected myself to further boredom.