Amizade Maldita

If you're going to go up against The Babadook you'd better make sure every aspect about the film is better and this film falls significantly short in every department.

That's not to say it's a bad film, it's just not as good as it could be. The difference between Z and The Babadook is that throughout the Australian horror we are constantly wondering wether the monster is real, but in Z we are pretty much dealt the full on monster creep early on so the sense of mystery and threat is diluted throughout the rest of the movie.

Story aside what really let this down was the poor quality of the special effects. The house fire in particular was laughably bad. The protracted final confrontation with the beast was a bit long winded and I kind of lost interest.

Not unwatchable but not as good as it could have been. If you haven't seen The Babadook definitely watch it after this.

I will watch pretty much any horror movie that looks halfway decent, and I have to say, this one did scare me a few times. Yes, there were some silly jump scares, but there were also some Really effective ones, and some parts literally freaking me out, and that very rarely happens. Honestly I can't remember the last time I even got a little bit scared at horror movie, so that's gotta say something right?! Some of the scares were really affective, others not as much, but I thought this one was really pretty damn entertaining. The actors are really good too, especially the mother. I'm not saying it's anything super original, but if you're watching this in one alone in the dark around midnight, you're bound to get a more than a little freaked out in parts, which is what you want in a horror movie right? I guess my point is that I was pleasantly surprised considering the amount of crap that gets put out these days, especially in the Horror genre. This year in particular they have been consistently pretty terrible, so when you find a decent one it makes you want to praise it for actually having some sort of affect on you. It may not be one that will Leave a lasting impression, but I doubt you will be disappointed. For a unheard of movie, with no PR, or word of mouth, it was nice to find it amongst the recent barrage of trash that passes for horror movies these days. Just sit back and enjoy it.

Now this review might sound a bit biased for some, I'm genuinely more scared of atmospheric slow-burn horror movies that tend to creep me out and cause goosebumps every now and then, psychological horror works more for me rather than bombastic and annoying jumpscares without substance, now with that said, therein lies the problem.

Z at first glance ticks the right boxes, it reminded me of Babadook, it started to resemble Hereditary which i was ready to embrace it as, but while those comparisons kept upping the ante as they escalated in both tone and their scare factor, Z on the other hand, does nothing despite having a easy to follow plot with one eerie twist that i wish they did more with, since this isn't a spoiler review i wont bother to give any details on that, but it became a make or break situation.

To summarize Z, it had a promising set up, there were genuinely scary moments that made my hair raise, but the last portions alongside no clear direction completely killed the momentum for me.

Final verdict: 6

Had it not been for the promising start and creep factor in some moments, i would've knocked the score by 2 and left it at 4.

Z is a gift that keeps on giving.

At first, they trick you into thinking that this is going to be an Insidious/Paranormal Activity/The Babadook mix (+all the Babadook rip-offs). It's rushed, doesn't make a whole lot of sense but still comes as an ok by-the-numbers horror that feels like it came straight from the early 2000s.

The second act is rushed through and then they just run out of the story. Then we get like a short sequel that is built into the main film.

I think that the idea came from a practical joke that was taken too seriously or an attempt to do something different. It probably felt ok on paper, but when turned into a film it just feels more comedic than scary.

The ending just goes off the rails, and again, this could've worked as a bizarre psychological thriller if done better.

You can see several interesting ideas here and there, but as a whole, the film doesn't work so well, mostly because of how disconnected from reality it is.

Keegan Connor Tracy was good in this, but you can see that at times she's just confused about what she is actually supposed to be playing.

Sadly, Stephen McHattie with all his potential was completely wasted in this.

It's not bad and I really want to like it, but there's just too much nonsense that prevents me from doing so.

Also, Z looks very different throughout the film and I'm not sure if this was intentional or not

I feel like I've missed something important, but probably not.

Good suspence at the beginning However it faded further into the movie It could have been better however I've seen worse