Trinket Box

Right, well as I stumbled upon the 2023 movie titled "Trinket Box", and seeing it was a horror movie, of course I opted to sit down and watch the movie, giving it a fair chance. I had never heard about the movie prior to sitting down to watch it, so I wasn't sure what I was in for here.

And talk about a swing and a miss. In fat, "Trinket Box" from writers and directors Patrycja Kepa and Acoryé White, was a slow burning dumpster fire of a movie. There was virtually nothing interesting happening throughout the course of the 103 minutes that the movie ran for. And that made for a very, very boring viewing experience. Yet, I managed to endure to the very end, which was a disappointing end as well, hoping that the movie would pick up in pace and prove to be entertaining.

That just never happened.

The acting performances in "Trinket Box" were actually fair enough, especially when taking into consideration that the actors and actresses virtually had nothing solid to work with. It was actually actress Sandra Ellis Lafferty, playing Mrs. Davis, whom put on the most memorable and outstanding performance in the movie, and she was but in a mere supporting role. I was only familiar with leading actress Augie Duke in the movie.

Visually then you're not in for anything there. There are no special effects to spruce up a stale, bland and mundane narrative that runs at a pace where even a dead guy would go 'ya might wanna speed it up a notch, fella'.

If you enjoy horror movies, do yourself a favor and don't waste 103 minutes on watching "Trinket Box". Some of us suffered through this ordeal, so you don't have to. You're welcome.

My rating of "Trinket Box" lands on a two out of ten stars.

Moving into a new house, a married couple tries to put their troubled past behind them that comes about due to their ethnic backgrounds, but the more they spend together they realize that a cursed trinket box is responsible for not just their marital issues but the hauntings surrounding them.

This one wasn't that good of a genre effort. One of the better features here is the rather enjoyable way the backstory about the haunted plantation comes to pass which is handled nicely as a solid backstory. The old-South traditions and treatment of black people back in that time period sets up the reaction to the affair rather nicely with it being a serviceable means of setting up a cruel and unfortunate situation to be rectified by a curse years later, especially with how the daily suffers afterward due to the incident. As this all bleeds over into the modern day and how them moving into the house starts up not just the old inequality issues usually present in these kinds of films but also sets up the mounting sense of paranoia following the numerous visits and gifts left behind that are interpreted with that passive/aggressive manner which starts this off rather well. Unfortunately, this gets wasted with the series of supernatural hauntings in the final half being the only other likable factor. There are some big issues with the film that hold it back. The main factor against this one is the outright sluggish and dreary pace that renders any possible attempt at suspense or thrills negated from the very beginning of the film. Featuring nothing but banal drama between the couple because it focuses on the particular trinket box with no context or lead-up to it, there's very little chance for anything to become invested from the setup so any attempt to try to build anything is just drowned out in a slew of underwhelming arguments that go nowhere. As that also causes the film to be completely lackluster with the usual style of quick image flashes of something popping out of the shadows proves to be the main source of scares here and is quite cliche overall. It could have been much better if only the main attempts to change it up weren't obscured in a realm of absolute darkness that's hard to determine what's going on anyway so if it's cliched or not it's impossible to tell. Overall, these all combine to make for a lackluster feature.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language including numerous racial slurs, Violence, and sexual content.

Horrible acting Lost, confused, nonsensical plot Horrible acting Boring movie for almost all of it.

It actually does start out to look interesting. But those 10 minutes disappear quickly.

Horrible acting.

Did I say boring?

Horrible acting Lost, confused, nonsensical plot Horrible acting Boring movie for almost all of it.

It actually does start out to look interesting. But those 10 minutes disappear quickly.

Horrible acting.

Did I say boring?

Horrible acting Lost, confused, nonsensical plot Horrible acting Boring movie for almost all of it.

It actually does start out to look interesting. But those 10 minutes disappear quickly.

Horrible acting.

Did I say boring?

Made an IMDB account just to write this review.

Dull, slow, boring drawn out scenes. Acting was terrible. Plot was terrible which is unfortunate because they really could've made this into something actually classified as horror with some substance to it.

Lots of information and scenes left out. I wish they would've went into more detail about the box and necklace and its origin. A lot of scenes just didn't make sense and were just plain stupid. Again, acting was terrible. Main characters did not have genuine chemistry and you can sense that as a viewer.

Don't waste your time on this garbage.

Overall, the movie was fair for a weekend in and watching on TV. I would have wanted a refund if I'd gone to the theater. My biggest criticism is the amount of time the scenes, which I'm sure were paramount to the plot and enjoyment, were extremely dark. I thought my TV turned off a few times it was that dark. Outside of the trinket box being passed around there wasn't a real connection made to the beginning. If the theme was nothing more than old racism still exists then they nailed it. Otherwise, this movie disappointingly left a lot on the table for me. I would not recommend it. Someone else said they were left on the edge of their seat. I was too but that was only because I was waiting for it to end so I could find something else to do with my time.