Sweet, Sweet Lonely Girl

Not quite certain of the horror or thriller elements here, but this does take us on a psychological journey with somehing creepy and supernatural underlying the plot of the film. This is a subtle film without much in the way of external scares. This is a slow descent into the psychology of a lonely but sweet girl and how manipulation can come from unlikely sources. Enchanting almost and worth a watch if you enjoy a slow burn film. Nicely produced for the retro feel.

Lonely Adele moves in with her agoraphobic aunt to take care of her and get some money for her family and meets a free-spirited peer who leads her down a dark path.

Those uninterested in slow paced character studies would be wise to swipe Sweet, Sweet Lonely Girl off their watch list immediately. Even those who enjoy such films might find parts of the journey interesting even when the destination isn't much to write home about. Performances are mostly decent to fairly good and the film is beautifully shot, evoking a 70's/early 80's mood right from the start. There are moments when the film could sit comfortably alongside the likes of Let's Scare Jessica To Death, The Nesting, or even the more recent House of the Devil. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to know how to end in a satisfying fashion and all that great mood and build up feels like it was all for naught.

I know this is a period piece, set in the 1980's. I realize it is well shot. The vibe is retro and eerie. However, the plot makes no sense. Character motives are devoid of logic. The ending makes no sense. It is as if there are fifteen minutes of important exposition missing from the cut I saw. Bad film!

We are never given answers. The ending seems both forced and hackneyed. There is absolutely nothing explained nor even hinted at. If you are going to tell me there are clues and there are answers hidden, and I would see them if I watched the film again, you will have missed the entire point of my review.

This is an extremely slowwww movie with no pay off. I have no idea why this is on Shudder in their "A good scare" section. This is not a horror movie, or even a thriller, just a boring drama.

There is something here. Something that is not fully explored, but there is also hints and nods to classic horror movies. Like haunted house ones or ones with weird unknown old people in the same house the protagonist is in. Or are they really there? Or even better: who are they? Do we get to see that person? Not here, because the aunt who is helped by her niece here, does not like anyone to enter her room. Or do stuff in that large house of hers.

You could re-watch this and probably find things you didn't notice the first time around. Or at least see them in a different light. Then again you may already see a couple of things, especially if you are film savvy, the first time around. As stated above the potential is there, but it's not always fully explored. And I don't just mean tone-wise or in the form of getting rid of shells/clothes to bare something deep skinned. The movie does seem to play it safe in certain areas and yet there is a lot of subtext. There is a lot of things that you can interpret however you see fit ... What will it be?