Ferocious

I'm a fan of thrillers that take place in one place. Cube, Buried, movies lake that. This is mostly similar as it takes place in a bar in a small town. Lee (Amanda Crew) comes home to where she grew up and has to get something sorted out from before she was a famous actress. She's a TV star. That takes her to the bar where Kim Coats works. Kim Coats is Dennis Hopper good. Could watch this guy all day. It's a creeper pot boiler. Pacing wise, I get what the director was trying to do by pacing it slow. That's a cool thing. BUT, sometimes it's a bit too slow. Matbe a result of lack of budget? I don't know. Could have used a bit more gore. But Kim Coats as the baddie is a no lose scenario.

Whoo. Spicy. K Coates was born for this role. The other actors have a hard time keeping up, but do pretty well all in all. It's obvious this is a low buck arrangement (to my eyes, anyway), but the filmmaker seems to make the best of it. Dim lighting and sinister music don't hurt. But it's mighty creepy, just in a different way than the conjuring or other thriller/horror out there. This is like being caught in a room with the world's sleaziest man and having to sit on his lap. This is what we're seeing a lot of now, small movies, usually thrillers or horror, some do quite well, others disappear. Not sure what to say about this one. It's good, but it's slow pace may not be to everyone's liking. This is not Speed, nor is it Transporter. But that's not taking anything away from it.

But not the flow of negativity surrounding this. While this is no masterpiece, it is more than a decent thriller effort with some really good acting inside. Kim Coates is always good, so that's a given. But Amanda Crew is also very good - and while I may be not objective (I really do like her), I think she gets a role she could really identify with and it shows on screen.

Now I understand if some get annoyed by certain elements of the movie! One being a really long sex tape - which while we only get glimpses of, is the basis of minutes upon minutes of - well soundtrack or background noise. This can be quite irritating to say the least. Not so much titilating though (at least to most I suppose). But if you even ask if you missed something, yes you did! Especially the twists, which are there! No matter if you approve or not - you can't deny their existence. Well apparently you can, but then as said you missed something

Leigh is an actress. A famous one by the looks of it. But she still finds time for the fans and to return home. But things are never so perfectly laid out.

Darker tones come into play as we learn there may be an ulterior motive in her return home. I'll stop there, but as you can guess, things go wrong, both for her and everyone she comes into contact with. In a way, this is very timely. But sometimes it also feels like it's been done. Not saying it has been done, but that it felt like it had. Ferocious has a small cast and not much of a budget. But there's bang for their buck. Kim Coates steals the show. He's creepy as all get out. The other actors are good too, though I don't know any of them. I'll give it a 6. It's not incredible, but it's better than most thrillers which are increasingly paint by numbers.

Kim Coates gives a two-for-one stellar performance in the film. Amanda Crew is terrific too, as is Michael Eklund. I found the screenplay well written and very well delivered, making for a relatively fast 93 minutes -- a fine fulfillment of the thriller's vision. Director Robert Cuffley's treatment of the story's monitor-and-mirror motif, definitely 'dark' in tone (much of the film is set in a dimly lit nightclub, after hours) becomes very big on the big screen; if we are paying attention, we recognize this 'monitor' as a mirror (and that any mirror can itself be a "mirage," as much as a monitor can). And to me an upclose- and-personal look at this reflection of archetypical truth, contextualized in clever and at times comical narrative, worth an evening's and a few dollars' investment.