Paraíso do medo

Uninhabited (2010)

I thought this was going to full on full found footage movies but again was so-what disappointed that it wasn't.

Like I said in my last post, i not fan of Mixed of hand held and normal filming, it dose not work for me.

I thought this movie sounded great, the idea was really good and the locations was great.

There could have done so much more with this movies, it's mind boggling, it kinds slow in places and really predicable in some places.

The acting was decent from short cast and for once I actually liked the last scenes of the movie, I thought it was decent end to a worth watching movie.

4 out of 10

When Harry (Henry James) and his girlfriend Beth (Geraldine Hakewill) travel by boat with the sailor Jackson (Bob Baines) to one of the six hundred islands in the Northeast coast of Australia, they expect to camp along ten days alone in a desert paradisiacal place. However, they sooner find footprints on the sand and missing things in their camping and they believe that it is a child's prank that might be camping on the other side of the island. After an incident with two weird foreigners, the couple finds that a woman called Coral (Tasia Zalar) was raped and murdered one hundred years ago in that island and her ghost feels an intense hatred for men.

"Uninhabited" is a low-budget ghost story that unfortunately does not scare. The character Harry has the most inappropriate attitude with the two strangers and the performance of Henry James is not good. Geraldine Hakewill is beautiful and convincing, but the plot is too weak and does not help the young lead couple to have better performances. The impressive location in the introduction is a wonderful lost paradise. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Paraíso do Medo" ("Paradise of the Fear")

I watched 'Uninhabited' as part of a MIFF double-horror special at Nova, Melbourne. This was second on the bill after 'The Clinic', which itself was a slightly-below average movie.

The film is entirely set on a gorgeous entirely secluded remote island on the Great Barrier Reef. A couple are on a ten-day romantic escape to this island, and early on in their getaway mysterious and unexplained happenings commence.

I actually enjoyed the first portion of the movie, the building of mystery was handled reasonably well and I held some genuine curiosity towards what was happening on the island (being set on an island I was half expecting some kind of black smoke monster to appear at some stage!).

However this intrigue dissipated pretty quickly. The acting, particular of the male lead was noticeable pretty poor and the film struggled to create any meaningful suspense or horror. The only part of the film which managed to create any kinds of feeling of suspense was the remoteness of the setting, but this is fairly stock standard for the horror genre. The plot was very clichéd and very predictable.

Overall an uninspiring film which unfortunately didn't build on mystery created early on in the film.

I am not surprised that there isn't a lot of loving for this movie. Sold as a horror movie, but lacking any real substance, and yet it actually does a lot of things pretty well.

The two leads are both very amiable, and do a decent job, admittedly neither is working from a wonderful script. I liked the pacing of the film, the beginning so bright, so beautiful, so full of expectation and bliss, a contrast to the end, which was dark and chaotic.

The suspense was good, and well built up. I kept expecting someone to jump out of the trees, or for it to have a moment or two similar to Lost.

The ending let it down, it deserved better, and the obvious scene, where we knew the fish was going to get one of them.

A decent watch. 6/10

Beth and Harry go vacationing on what they believe is an uninhabited island. Jackson, the guy who owns the boat, drops them off and seems to know something the way he's looking at the couple; well, either that, or he's jealous of young love. Most likely the former. So why isn't he telling? Afterall, many horror movies start out with dire warnings by someone which are, of course (lucky for us), ignored. The same could have happened here but in this movie the person who seems to know something keeps their mouth shut this time and leaves the couple on the island to fend for themselves (Suckers!!).

Alone finally, Beth and Harry think they're in paradise and it certainly looks like it when we, the viewers, get that wonderful cinematographic overview of the island. Nothing to do for 10 days but fish and f!!ck. And fish and f!!ck some more! Sounds good to me. Probably to you too, reader, I don't know. The happy couple have a courtship of playful teasing, trading friendly jibes and silliness in obvious anticipation of their time together on the island. Then shortly they get down to business (you know, with the f & f) but as soon as they do, the morning after, they discover signs that they are not alone. It's not so troubling at first. It just meant that they would have to share the island with others or another. It is understandably somewhat disappointing when they thought they'd have the whole place to themselves. But they're basic plan still seemed intact; they could still fish and discretely f!!ck as much as they liked (Arrriiight!).

The naturalness or comfort level between the couple didn't feel right to me. I don't know why. They're banter seemed scripted (which it actually is, but they're suppose to convince us otherwise). That could be just me, reader. But if I'm right, then the acting was not as good as it should have been. Still, a horror movie can still be rescued from a "little bad acting" by a good story and good scares. So Boloxxxi, did the story and the scares save the day? --Well, reader, the story --at least the general framework of it-- is okay. Basically: A couple vacations on what they think is a normal, uninhabited island, discover it's neither normal or uninhabited as they thought; that the island is in fact haunted. Nothing wrong with that. I think the big disappointment of this movie is that there was a certain amount of anticipation and mystery as to who or what else was on the island. And when it came time for the big payoff it turns out that it's nothing that really creeps you out or makes you shudder. My attractive companion didn't grab me once during the viewing which of course was my master plan (Foiled again!).

So basically 3 things torpedoed this movie in my opinion: the acting (an unconvincing couple), some of the execution (how the ghost GRADUALLY made it's presence known), and how it FINALLY made it's presence known. The last was so, so, so anticlimactic. That's the ghost?!! Hell, I can see that walking on the street. Love, Boloxxxi.