Slapface

Well, first of all it was somewhat of an odd title for the movie. Sure, it made sense in a way, given the contents of the movie, but it just was a lousy movie title. I grabbed the movie, and was about to put it away, given the title alone, but I opted to sit down and watch it on the account of it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen.

And this was a horror movie, at least in the sense that the movie was insanely slow paced and pointless. The storyline told in "Slapface", as written by writer and director Jeremiah Kipp, was one that was lacking a proper structure. The movie felt somewhat chaotic and random. And the fact that the narrative was sleep-inducingly slow didn't exactly help to sweeten the deal.

The acting performances in "Slapface" were actually good, especially from young lead actor August Maturo, because he really carried the movie quite well.

The monster in the movie was sort of a lukewarm experience. Sure, the violent aspect of the being was entertaining enough, and the fact that it befriended a kid was fun as well, but the overall was just bland. I mean, a hag-like crone in tattered robes and shrouded in perpetual shadows throughout the entire movie just didn't cut it for me. When I watch a horror movie with a creature in it, I want to see the creature in its entire being sooner or later in the narrative. But in "Slapface" the monster was always shrouded in shadowy gloom and thus you never really get a proper look a the make-up, design, effects, etc. A fail on that account.

As for "Slapface" being a horror movie, well... Sure, if you are a pre-teen and a newcomer to the horror genre in general, then I could see how "Slapface" would be a horror movie. But for a life-long horror aficionado, then this was a mere walk in the park.

In terms of entertainment, then writer and director Jeremiah Kipp just dropped the ball early on in the ordeal and never recovered his course. This movie was weak, yet I managed to endure the ordeal to the very end. If you enjoy horror movies, skip on "Slapface" and find something else worth your time, money and effort.

My rating of the 2021 horror movie "Slapface" lands on a three out of ten stars.

The movie seems very interesting at start but then the story starts to become boring..some artists seems poor in acting..it had potential and could be a uch better movie.

Tired of being constantly bullied, a young boy living with his orphaned brother while trying to stay out of trouble ends up encountering a real-life witch in the area and ends up befriending it, forcing him to come to a deadly realization where his loyalties lie when it starts on a bloody rampage.

On the whole, this was a highly enjoyable and chilling effort. One of the finer points to this one is the incredibly strong setup that serves as a reason to generate the central relationship at hand. While cliched, the setup involving the bullied youth who decides to seek solace in areas outside of the accepted norms in the community which causes everyone to worry about him while he ends up developing a macabre friendship with the creature is handled quite well. This goes into the reasons why he's being bullied and how that leads him into contact with the witch as well as the clues that he's been hiding the relationship with the creature from those around him that everyone suspects is the human girl that's hanging around him that gives this part of the film a lot to like. As well, once the witch becomes a prominent part of the film there's some fun to be had with the creatures' stalking and attacks. The first encounter inside the house where it appears in the mirror behind him while attempting to prank the others outside is a genuinely unnerving moment, much like the later ambush on the girlfriend at the house. There's a genuine tension to the way it constantly alerts her to its presence without saying anything and the final payoff is quite satisfying being one of the only jump-scares in the film. Other encounters, including the ambush on the girls in the woods or the hospital appearance, offer up some dark and thrilling action that's a nice setup for the finale where the final confrontation is as emotionally disturbing as it is brutal. These manage to provide this with some enjoyable aspects. That said, there are some minor drawbacks here that hold this down. Among the main flaws here is the fact that the central relationships that it spends so much time honing aren't always the most interesting or enjoyable to see play out. The main relationship we're supposed to be following in the brother meeting up with the new girl from the bar is inherently uninteresting and doesn't make either of them out to be interesting with the constant abuse and fighting that makes them out to be far more dysfunctional than warranted. Likewise, the central triangle with the kids is equally uninteresting, managing to come across with far more curiosity than anything regarding how they're even friends in the first place and making for a highly aggravating experience here. The other issue at play, which is somewhat informed by the previous drawback, is that it takes way too long for the witch to actually do something interesting in here. It spends way too much time here standing around watching him interact with his brother, the crummy lifestyle they lead, or the interactions with the bullies tormenting him before it springs into action to attack those around him. As well, the constant bickering and fighting between the brother and his girlfriend in their relationship just amounts to even more time here that ends up pushing back the rampage until so late in the film that it's quite hard to really care what happens since we're spending all this time on factors that some of the impact is lost. These are really all that hold this one down though.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, intense themes of bullying, child abuse and violence.against-animals.

This horror allegory has a unique premise that unfolds in a fresh, realistic way, but the execution is very poor.

The premise is that the boy protagonist has a monster who helps him to deal with his struggles--an animalistic, witchlike ogre who behaves something like a trained attack dog, willing to play along with her companion but always ready to viciously attack. The boy faces numerous struggles--grief, puberty, poverty, bullying--and the impulsive violence manifested by his monster represents the only method he knows for confronting those problems. This is a horror of stunted emotional development. The screenplay, acting, and on-location filming present this premise in a way that is refreshingly free from cliches. There seems to be an autobiographical core breathing life into this film.

Nevertheless, I found it extremely tedious. For a movie that's less than 90 minutes, it seems like quite a slog. Something about the editing and pacing of the film is disorienting in an unintentional way: one scene ends, the next begins, the tone and setting abruptly shifts, and it isn't quite clear how much time has passed in between. Cause and effect become ambiguous, the flow is extremely choppy, and none of that clunkiness seems to contribute anything to the film. The end result is that my husband and I were consistently confused about how the movie's themes were progressing and how the events of the scenes related to each other.

The filmmakers have potential and this film certainly has something meaningful to say, yet I wouldn't recommend trying to sit through it.

I was leaning towards a 6 originally because I thought it was slightly above average, but unfortunately the ending was quite unfulfilling. Nevertheless I found this film generally entertaining with a few iffy choices.

The acting all around was fine. Everyone did their job and no one was negatively distracting. The only person who positively stood out was the little boy. I thought he did a great job.

Story was fine I suppose, nothing wildly original. Maybe I'm stupid, but the connection between the slap face and the monster made no sense to me, it was barley explained to begin with and is also generally just a bad title lol.

Also I found the relationship written between the older brother and the girl wildly poorly written. They had just met, then she basically lives there and then they fight like a seasoned couple. It was very confusing and weird and took me out of the story. There were a few intricacies and inconsistencies like that, that gave this an amateurish feel.

Another thing that took me out of the story was the monster. It literally looked like someone bought a mask of the witch from Snow White from party city and threw some dirt on it. It looked silly and was hard to take seriously, which was unfortunate.

I wanted to like this a lot more than I did because it did have some cool creep factor, however it was not boring or a waste of time. I would recommend... but not vehemently.