Nocebo

In the first fifteen minutes you know all you will need to know about where this movie is going and where it will end up. There are no surprises at all, other than showing the Phillipines as a backwards. Third world nation full of sweat shops and military takeovers.

I wanted to see this because of Eva Green, and Mark Strong was a plus, but this could have starred anyone at all and it would still be the same movie; the big names were just a draw to a very predictable and ultimately mediocre story. There are no scares and a very few good FX scenes, but that's about it.

If you have ever seen a movie before, you don't need to see this one, unless you want to see how right you are about predicting how each scene will end.

In the supernaturally-tinged "Nocebo" creepy Philippine housemaid Chai Fonacier (good on her English language debut) arrives at the London home of upper middle-class Eva Green & Mark Strong who're struggling to parent young Billie Gasdson as Green re-launches her clothing design career AND struggles with a debilitating sickness' various dramatic symptoms (inc nightmarish 'hallucinations'). Fonacier helps, though Strong suspects something sinister's afoot (as is gradually shown thru Fonacier's flashbacks). While writer / director team Garrett Shanley & Lorca Finnegan's third collaboration may not top the horror thriller genre, it is a decently solid entry into it.

1) Watch it without reading anything about this movie. There are no mind-blowing twists but you will enjoy it more if you don't know anything about the plot. Some things that happened are not difficult to predict, but still, their reveal is shocking.

2) During the first 10-ish minutes, i thought that this was going to be a mediocre to bad movie. I was wrong. This is getting better by the minute. The ending is shattering, i liked it very much.

3) Stil, it's flawed. Green and Strong are very good actors but i didn't love the acting here. Definitely not bad though. Chai Fonacier steals the show, she was amazing. Furthermore, this is a forgettable movie, not exactly formulaic and predictable but definitely not groundbreaking and original either. In any case, I believe it's better than the average movie of this genre.

4) So, if you wanna watch a good psychological-drama horror movie, watch NOCEBO. Not scary, not mindless fun, but a nice movie to spent 96 minutes. I would even call it daring for an American movie, due to its script.

I like this film.

Right from the start you can tell that real time and effort has been put in to creating a well rounded and immersive story - something adults will appreciate.

The acting by Eva Green and Chai Fonacier is superb in realising wholly believable characters you can relate to right from the start.

Unfortunately, and this is my only slight criticism, is. Mark Strong's character seemed very one dimensional and wooden. It didn't gel well with the rest of talent displayed by Green and Fonacier and stood out as being under par in the face of their skill.

You may well guess what the general plot is quite early on in the film, but perhaps that is by design and adds to the connection with the characters.

All in all worth watching, and I will certainly watch it again in the future.

Eva Green is a top of the range children's fashion designer suffering from a bizarre psychological complaint that flummoxes doctors. Into her life comes Chai Fonacier, a shaman from the Philippines who manages to improve Green's health immeasurably. Her husband, played by Mark Strong is not so sure neither is her feisty young daughter.

Strong performances all around make for an interesting and rather different horror / thriller which features a good deal of icky, though sometimes unconvincing, effects. Overall though this is a fascinating effort which gets you about 20 minutes from the end and then spells out quite disturbingly, which is actually quite hard to watch in places, exactly what's going on and why Green is ill and why Fonacier is there - quite chilling.