The Crooked Man

So toward the start of the movie, one girls asks, "Have you heard about the song that kills you if you sing it?" Hmm... substitute "video" for "song" and "watch" for "sing," and you have a used premise. And the Crooked Man himself bears a striking resemblance to another legendary figure that kills people. There IS something of a plot here-kids unwittingly unleash an evil force, it kills a bunch of people until the protagonists (this is NOT a spoiler alert) figure out a way to stop it, and then they do. Somehow, the fact that the production values are pretty good and the cast is adequate makes this even more frustrating.

I'm glad Michael Jai White made some pocket change for his blink-and-you-might-miss-it appearance. But they really didn't give him much to do. He didn't even take his shirt off.

(Well, I was at home with a cold, and it let me pass two hours without having to think. That's my excuse. If you watch this movie, what's yours?)

Saw 'The Crooked Man', being fond of horror regardless of budget (even if not my favourite genre) and being intrigued somewhat by the idea. Being behind on my film watching and reviewing, with a long to watch and review list that keeps getting longer, it took me a while to get round to watching and reviewing it.

Giving 'The Crooked Man' a fair chance with being interest and apprehension, it turned out to be far better than expected. Won't say that 'The Crooked Man' is a great film (mediocre actually) because it isn't and the potential, while not wasted, is not fully lived up to. Considering the large number of films seen recently being mediocre and less and wasting potential, was expecting worse and was relieved that while wanting in a fair few areas it was actually one of my better recent low-budget viewings.

'The Crooked Man' started off quite well, the first twenty minutes or so starting the film off on a promising, unsettling and atmospheric note that really does intrigue.

Production values did have some eeriness and nowhere near as cheap as expected.

The setting is effectively spooky. Initially, there are spooky and suspenseful moments, it isn't dull, and the storytelling in the first half does intrigue.

However, the story was severely wanting in the second half after starting off promisingly. It is very disjointed and after the promising start the final third especially loses atmosphere, one loses interest and things start to not make sense. Too much of the film is vague and doesn't explore some elements and story strands enough, some dropped soon after being introduced, go nowhere or serve much point.

Ending is unsatisfying, on top of feeling hasty there are too many loose ends hanging in the air. Got the sense that the writers didn't know how to end the film. Would have liked much more tension and suspense (where there is barely any of either), scares could have been more consistent (again nowhere near enough) and some weren't surprising enough and had no atmosphere, the over-obvious sound not helping.

Found too the script to lack natural flow and with a fair bit of cheese and blandness going on, and the characters bland with some adopting some annoying and not always logical decision making. There is very little menace to the villain, the direction is phoned and generally the acting is subpar with Michael Jai White being little more than a barely used commercial device seemingly.

Overall, mediocre. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Michael Jai White!! Will barely appear in this movie! Sadly they used him as nothing more than a commercial, and as a huge fan of the man, I was disappointed. So don't watch it for him, you'll just get annoyed.

Now the movie itself: I wasn't as disappointed as expected. It had some nice elements to offer, the monster looked good for such a production and the acting was so-so. Was there really any horror? Far from it, no tension either, it's a straight serial killer movie, always knowing who is next to die and how.

But as previously said, it was not the worst thing out there. It was an OK way to spend 90 minutes, especially on a very boring night. Therefore if you are a die hard horror fan, The Crooked Man has little to offer, as little as White's presence, so the decision is on you.

Cheers!

"The Crooked Man" has got to be one of the worst horror movies I've ever sat through. The storyline felt weak and uninspired, and the special effects were terrible, so noticeably bad that they constantly pulled me out of the experience. The characters were flat, and the acting didn't help either. Honestly, there was nothing remotely scary or engaging about it. If you're looking for a good horror flick, you'd be better off skipping this one altogether. It's a waste of time and does no justice to the genre. Even background noise would've been a better use of my time than watching this mess unfold.

There is a story here. Not an original one but it's good enough. Children awaken a curse and years later they're dealing with the last of it. Kills, haunting stuff inter-people dramatics etc.

But this movie makes so many bad decisions. The Crooked Man should have looked fine, but not only do they just put him on screen all the time, they put a terrible looking effect on him too.

(There are scenes where he's more out of view and it looks actually good. Those are rare.)

The opening scene really matters for the story and not only is it done poorly, later on you see better shots of the same scene. They should have reused those at the start and even if not, we didn't have to know that.

And it's got a lot of that and it's noticeable. Good lesson on what not to do for a director when everybody else seems to be at least showing up.