#Horror

This film suffers from what can only be described as a surplus of ideas that don't really add to the final point very well. That the movie is a horror film is a given. The title makes it clear. The heavy atmosphere, the music, the ridiculous animations.. They all point to a horror film of some sort.

But unfortunately the rest of the substance in the film is something of a confusing mess.

I won't pick on the actors, because frankly I think they did an admirable job for such young actresses playing a part in such a disturbing movie. Granted, their acting wasn't flawless, it was actually rather forced. But after repeating some of their lines to myself and considering better ways to deliver them, I've decided that the forced acting is mostly the fault of the writing. The emotional context behind the words keeps shifting at a breakneck pace, and it's really hard to pull off on screen without feeling choppy.

So I can forgive the girls for that.

However, the lack of focus in this film is its biggest problem. I couldn't decide what idea the director was trying to get at in any given scene. We had cathartic confessions where the girls bond, only to be ripped apart again by petty elementary school level dialogue. We had the dysfunctional parents deeply neglecting their children, and then going haywire, the girls themselves suffering from all sorts of deeply personal problems, bullying, the concept of being "too rich to be happy", a local legend of a crazy slasher is inserted, and the idea that a person's imperfections make them good slasher bait (a popular idea in hundreds of slasher films, appropriate even for 12 year old girls it seems).

And the only thing tying it all together is the notion that being addicted to social media will cause you to disassociate yourself from reality while filming it all live for your followers to watch with interest. But honestly even that idea seems to fade away after a little while. It doesn't feel like it's as important a thing as it should be.

If you were confused at all by the last paragraphs then you understand what I'm trying to say. So many ideas, so jumbled.

The only justification for this level of thematic bombardment must be to confuse the viewer so that they don't guess what's really happening. But honestly, anyone who really watches the movie with even a little bit of attention can see what's really going on. The ending was not a surprise.

All in all I'm not sure what hook this movie is using to lure people to watch it. I think the fact that it features 12 year old girls and horror IS the hook. It's sort of morally decadent to submit girls that young to many of the things in this film.

I feel a little disgusting for having watched it, can't say I enjoyed it much. But it wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen by any means. If the director can clear up the mess of ideas a little, I feel like a second shot is in order. Maybe another movie along the same vein. Maybe a sequel. Ha. Maybe not.

This was the most boring movie filled with untalented individuals. The acting was horrendous and the movie was so very slow. The action only happened near the end and it wasn't that great. The ending had a good message but you didn't know what the message was UNTIL the ending. This movie could have been written a whole lot better than it was. It was pretty bland for something that has "horror" in the title of it. The sad part is this was something I got for free and ultimately wish someone had paid me to watch it.I can honestly say that I didn't feel there was a horror feel to this movie at all. I instead felt like I was watching a lame sleep over for a bunch of 12 year old's that went at a very slow pace.

Sometimes a movie comes along with the best of intentions, but its execution is simply so bad that the message gets lost. "#Horror" (R, 1:41) is one of those. The film is basically about cyberbullying, which is a serious problem in the U.S., especially among teens. According to figures from bullyingstatistics.org and Wikipedia.com, about half of all American teenagers experience cyberbullying at some point, about 1/3 per year and about 10-20 percent on a regular basis. Cyberbullying affects girls and boys roughly equally and includes all races. Many victims are more likely to have low self-esteem and consider suicide – with some having tragically completed the act. Statistics, facts and stories can bring attention to the problem, but few methods can bring it to life more effectively than a movie – IF the movie in question is effective.

As six 12-year-old girls in Connecticut gather for a sleepover, the issue of cyberbullying is introduced in a pair of parent-child conversations and becomes a factor throughout the girls' day and evening together. As Sam (Sadie Seelert) is being driven to the party by her mom (Natasha Lyonne), Sam is clearly embarrassed by her family's low socioeconomic status as compared to the girls she is about to spend time with and she is desperate to fit in. Meanwhile, Cat (Haley Murphy) is being lectured by her father, Dr. White (Timothy Hutton). Cat has been the victim of cyberbullying and (as is often the case) has also become a perpetrator. By the time Sam and Cat each arrive at the home of their host, Sophia (Bridget McGarry), three other girls, Georgie (Emma Adler), Francesca (Mina Sundwall) and Ava (Blue Lindberg) are already in Sophia's basement speaking unkindly about Cat and Sam, which Sam overhears before she enters the room… but she goes in anyway. And this is only the beginning of the girls' meanness.

No one is spared hurt feelings in this movie. The sleepover activities – playing dress-up, swimming, dancing, talking, etc. – are infused with the girls picking on each other in a way that they may think is playful, but doesn't seem to feel that way to the girl(s) on the receiving end. These tweens mercilessly tease each other about things like lacking money, being fat, enduring family embarrassment (and even trauma) and generally not fitting in. They supplement their taunts by posting pictures of each other online along with cruel hashtags. Things occasionally get very heated between some of the girls and, at one point, Sophia throws Cat out of the house. Cat leaves a very emotional voice mail for her father, who tries to call her back, fails to reach her and shows up at the house to lecture, yell at and threaten the girls. Sophia's mother (Chloë Sevigny) has left the girls alone for a while to take care of some personal business, and Sophia's father (Balthazar Getty) isn't home either, so there's no one to defend the girls from Dr. White's erratic behavior or to help him look for Cat. Things go downhill for the girls to the point that the audience gets a decent final 10 minutes, but that's the only real horror in the movie.

Filmmakers who want to make a horror movie sometimes need to be reminded that horrifying and horrible are not the same thing. These performances range from barely passable to just plain bad, in spite of the presence of an Oscar nominee (Sevigny) and an Oscar winner (Hutton) in the cast, but the actors are done no favors by a script that has them doing and saying things that often make very little sense. The words of caution and life lessons that writer-director Tara Subkoff clearly wants to convey are randomly scattered through the script as one-liners or isolated incidents that are almost completely lacking in coherence. But even with criticisms like these, you'd expect a big-screen release to at least display a certain professional technical expertise, wouldn't you? The cinematography is inconsistent in its look and many of the camera shots are of poor quality. And don't get me started on the distracting flashes of barely understandable and essentially meaningless cartoonish graphics throughout the film.

The worst thing about this movie is the important themes it tries to explore and the vital points that it wants to make are all buried beneath amateurish filmmaking. Even though this story hits many of the right notes, few people who see the movie will benefit from them. Although it doesn't have as much to say as this film is trying to, 2015's "Unfriended" is a cautionary tale of cyberbullying that is at least semi-entertaining. Still, there's a void to be filled. A topic as important as cyberbullying deserves an equally important and well-made movie. Here's hoping that we get one soon, because "#Horror" ain't it. "D"

I really love horror movies and I decided to buy this one on Pay per view because it had such an amazing cast - Chloe Sevigny, Tomothy Hutton, and Lydia Hearst. Unfortunately #Horror turned out to be one of the worst horror movies I've ever seen. I actually thought about turning it off several times but I already paid to see it.

First of all it's not even scary! There were no big shocks or frights here. In fact most of the "horror" doesn't even happen until the last 15 minutes. Most of the movie is tween girls dressing up and talking and acting stupid.

Also the very talented cast is totally misused. Chloe Sevigny is always a delight on screen but she has very little to do. She had the one funny scene in the movie (involving lost cell phones) and then she basically disappears until the end. Timothy Hutton is a great actor but he is forced to yell and overact throughout the entire movie. Then they cast the gorgeous model/heiress Lydia Hearst and she is only on screen for a minute.

The other problem is that the plot is supposed to be about bullying but I could not tell who the victim was. All the girls are horrible and say mean, cruel things to each other. They are all playing evil bullies so how is the audience supposed to sympathize with anyone.

The director tries to be cool buy adding images of social media, online games, and hash tags but it just reminds you how bad the movie is. The ending is predictable and at the same time confusing. Skip this movie and please don't make the mistake of paying for it like I did.

Holy sh*t you guys, this movie is absolutely terrible, I can't possibly sugar coat that, or make it any simpler to understand. This movie is atrocious. Supposedly inspired by actual events, though the Wikipedia page seems to say that those "events" were the fact that the director knew someone affected by cyber-bullying, but I digress, and feel free to send me the real story.

Now, I recognize that when it comes to movies about bullying, or teens in peril, we are supposed to take them seriously because BULLYING YOU GUIZ, and I'm sure some people will give this movie more credit because of that, but the movie is just fundamentally broken on every front. Writing, acting, editing, production, the whole movie doesn't work, and it was a genuine chore to get through. While some may consider the ending to be "totally f***cccckkkked upppppp", there's just nothing there and if there is, it's buried deep under a huge pile of confusion and garbage.

The first issue I had with this were the actors. The teen girls cast in this movie are awful. Their characters are completely unredeemable and unpleasant, and the performances given from all of them border on being totally unwatchable. We essentially spend the first hour and ten minutes (no, that's not an exaggeration), watching these girls be horrible to each other, and watch their garbage parents be horrible as well. There's not one character in the movie who I had much sympathy or care for. They make attempts to create sympathetic characters, giving some of them ham-fisted back stories regarding suicide or just having them be taunted for their weight. Now, I don't mean to say that teens don't have bad lives, or hard times, or taunt each other, but the way that they are portrayed here creates an insanely unbelievable bunch of human beings. Nothing feels genuine, with the exception of the total and complete obsession with their cellphones.

On the topic of their cellphones, the girls all seem to be obsessed with the same app, which is some kind of bizarre combination of Candy Crush and Instagram that amounts to a senseless mess that fill the screen with indecipherable nonsense for a third of the running time. This is present immediately in the credits, which are absurdly fast for absolutely no reason, and the faux app just feels cheap and stupid. The kids obsess over this app and you're forced to watch them post on it for 45 excruciating minutes.

There are a couple of recognizable faces in the movie, primarily Chloe Sevigny (American Horror Story), who I know for a fact can do SO MUCH BETTER THAN THIS. You also get a brief appearance from Taryn Manning (Orange is the New Black), and Natasha Lyonne (Orange is the New Black), who are all fine actors, but they just have nothing to do in this movie. One thing that I will give credit to this movie for, however, is the huge number of female characters that star here. This is such an unfortunately rare thing in horror, and I don't want to discourage a female-fronted film ever. With that said though, the characters and actors in this movie are just wasted on such a weird mess of a film.

#Horror was the writing/directorial debut of actress Tara Subkoff (The Cell, The Notorious Betty Page), and I say again I love seeing women making horror movies, but this is just a mess from all fronts. Maybe it's just a case of first-time jitters, or something to that effect, but the movie just doesn't work and tries to pull of some bizarre style elements that feel awkward. There's a certain vibe of "Hello fellow kids" throughout this whole movie, that you usually see with adults trying to related directly to teenagers without gathering much context.

Now, there are a couple of genuinely interesting and effective shots in the movie, but that's kind of like saying that an album with one good song on it is a good album. The pieces do not make a cohesive whole, and the movie falls really flat. The shots that work do give me hope for the future, but that could also be due to cinematographer Learan Kahanov, but I'm not familiar enough with their work to really say for sure.

Yes, bullying is real, yes kids are horrible monsters to each other, regardless of all that, this movie really sucks. Give it a hard pass.