Battlecreek

I had high expectations for this. Though I wondered why, considering this movie was shot in 2014, it took so long to release. And that it was finally released when Bill Skarsgard rightfully got recognition for his role as Pennywise in IT. It could be to do with the fact that Battlecreek is a let down. I am a fan of most of the actors in Battlecreek. Bill Skarsgard has proved he has acting talent. Unfortunately, I felt the actors were let down by poor directing and what may of read well on paper, didn't portray so well on screen. It probably also didn't help that Bill and Claire literally had 5 days from being cast to shooting the movie, and the was lack of chemistry between the the two main leads, didn't help at all.

The movie didn't know what or where to go, it was drawn out and never got going, neither did it actually go anywhere at all. Was waiting for something to happen throughout, but there was no fuel to get it going. It lacked that punch. Then you ended up with a rushed ending, after half of the movie failed to pick up any pace.

If you are expecting a love story with warmth and heart, you may be disappointed. And it becomes apparent why this movie sat on a shelf for a few years.

I got to be behind the scenes for a handful of scenes, which was pretty cool. Eastwood seemed like a hard person to work for she stayed in her trailer with her cat most of the time. But my friend's house is an old Antebellum house in Mississippi and I guess it was in the budget but they repainted the house (inside and outside) and put in a new AC unit and let them keep a lot of furniture. Not to mention they put them all up in hotels for weeks and gave them a decent chunk of change for using the house.

Hate that of all the people I met I never got to meet Bill.

But a lot of movies get filmed in Canton, MS. My Dog Skip was filmed in a house down the road from their home.

The crew was cool but the movie was honestly boring. We all got a free copy and I don't think I ever watched it more than the one time.

This film is mediocre in every way, and the only element it excelled at is pushing and exploiting stereotypes and clichés about disability. Anti-social, emotionally undeveloped and insecure, desperate, shut in, angry, all packed into the lead character. I am not surprised it has had to be re-edited over and over, for years. Really it is disgusting. The makers ought to be ashamed. The two twists and the end (I wont spoil them) are truly groan worth and patently contrived to try and button up the story.

Battlecreek follows a boy Henry who can't go out in the sun due to a skin condition he has. He insteads spends his evenings out and about around his small town. Everything changes when a girl, Alison gets stuck in the town due to her car breaking down. They soon become friends and eventually more all the while her past tracks her down. The storyline is pretty interesting and also decently paced so you don't end up bored or lacking something interesting happening on screen.

The casting is lovely with Bill Skarsgård doing a great job as Henry, the beautiful Claire Van Der Boom playing our mysterious Alison. We have Delroy Lindo playing Arthur, the local mechanic and father figure that Henry never had at home. We also have Paula Malcomson playing Henry's mother. So solid casting overall and good performances by them all.

The VFX and SFX are fine as well, nothing crazy in terms of VFX really but nice audio and soundtrack.

Overall a solid 7/10 from me, It's a nice little romance/thriller and is interesting enough though a bit slow at times. It has a solid main and supporting cast and good soundtracks.

Almost without fail their are two signs of a cheap production. One is an opening prolonged scene of a car driving down a road. OK, that's out. The second is no subtitles - check; poor audio level & in this case it seemed to be dubbed in after the movie was filmed (hollow, distant sound) - check; poor enunciation w/added southern dialect to be slightly less understandable - check. Third is lots of camera focused talking heads time - check. Script - small town (w/the typical small town issues) local young male is introverted because of a slightly noticeable skin problem; falls for girl (when her car brake down in said small town) who's running away from abusive boyfriend. 95% of film run time is just talking heads until the final few minutes when old meets new love interest. At that point I'm script redundantly script bored and could care less about the outcome which, of course, is predictable.