Can't Take It Back

It's an average teen horror flick. I've seen tons worse. Decent production value, decent acting, what more do you want from a movie with this premise? I'll take it over a lot of Blumhouse theatrical releases. Far from perfect, but you could definitely spend an hour and a half in worse ways.

Seemed to have a reasonably original storyline (considering I have only heard/seen about 3 or 4 movies with the same motif.) The acting isn't *awful* but some of it could definitely be improved on. The 'demon' or whatever the hell it is relies on special technical effects as the actual makeup isn't very scary on it's own. As a woman in her mid twenties, I am not a fan of Logan Paul but his acting wasn't terrible; it was passable. Nothing special.

The lead's eyebrows did annoy the hell out of me, though. Plus all of the dumb decision making that always seems to be a common theme in any horror movie, but particularly ones that center around teenagers.

The plot started out valuably, with promise, but as the movie started progressing towards it's second and third act, it was lacking in oomf. There were a few creepy bits, one or two good jump scares, but all in all; I would not watch this again, and I probably wouldn't recommend it to a friend.

Was drawn into seeing 'Can't Take It Back' with a cool poster/cover, a very intriguing if not creative premise and as someone with a general appreciation for the genre as said many times. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive.

'Can't Take It Back' is a film it doesn't do enough with its potential (although there are far bigger wastes of potential in film) and could have been much better. 'Can't Take It Back' is very weak with a lot of big problems. It certainly could have been far worse, considering the large number of films seen recently being mediocre at best and terrible at worst.

Lets start with the positives. The setting is atmospheric and spooky and 'Can't Take it Back' could have looked far worse visually, was expecting a cheap looking film and to me there were moments where it didn't look too bad, having said that a lot of it is crude and rushed-looking.

'Can't Take it Back' has some suspenseful and creepy moments in the first third and it started off on a fun and intriguing note.

Albeit, there is nothing new here, it's all familiar territory and executed in old-hat fashion. The second half also takes itself far too seriously and gets incredibly idiotic, a very completely different film feel here. The creepiness dissipates completely fairly early on, with the horror, suspense and tension being nowhere near enough. Things start not making much sense and gets silly, with one of the most ludicrous and easily foreseeable endings ever. The acting is not amateurish, but it's also fairly unremarkable.

Further issues are that it was clear that it was written in haste. There is a very rushed and careless feel to the story, especially in the second half where confusion and choppiness can be found in editing and narrative, and the underdeveloped and scrappy script likewise. The concept is not a new one and there is nothing new or illuminating here, it is a harrowing and relevant subject that is being explored and the film underdevelops, overdoes and trivialises it.

Then there is some padding and aimlessness that also gives the film a dragging sensation. The characters are flimsily developed, annoying and bland, the direction lacks focus and the music and sound editing are far too intrusive and obvious. It is not a case of not trying, it is a case of trying too hard and the execution suffers as a result.

In summary, weak. 3/10 Bethany Cox

It's a decent teen horror honestly. Yes there are problems, but also there are some legitimately creepy moments. Honestly I'd probably watch it again.

It's not the worst movie. There are some good parts. The acting is not terrible, and there are some fine moments. As for scary parts, there are a few that were notable.

Unfortunately most of the film just falls into the "overdone" category. They were trying too hard to make a scary movie by using too many scary scenes, too much scary ambiance, way too many horror tropes without any new original spin on them, etc, etc. You can't scare people by inuring them in scary scenes, their potency fades almost immediately. After that, all you have left is a dreary collection of jump scares that have no effectiveness because the viewer has already been primed for them.

This alone could have made the film much more viewable: Less time being haunted and more time developing characters who were sorely in need of development.

An additional weakness that killed the immersion for me was the poor imitation of modern day technology and social media. Obviously the plot hinges on the use of social media as a means of bullying. But anyone who has used social media knows how it works (which is nearly everyone at this point) and they know that you can or can't do this, or that this program doesn't work like that, or it doesn't react this way, etc. There were literally sound effects from the older laptops in the early 2,000s played to "add realism" to the classy, sleek looking laptops of today. Didn't work at all for me.

There were just too many places where the technology used didn't reflect reality and it kept ripping me out of the film, literally screaming into my ear, "This is a movie, remember? We're trying to make it look real without violating any copyright laws."

It came off as very weak.

But the final iron nail in this bedroom door was the weakly conceived plot in the first place. Please, how many movies are going to keep beating this dead horse of school bullying? Apparently having someone post an embarrassing picture of you online is the last straw for our young people today? What childishness. Join the army or something. Don't be so fragile.

Unfortunately the writers simply did not make it seem real for the viewer, it came off as more of a cheap ethics punch, sort of like how the Saturday morning cartoons years ago used to play little clips after the episode to teach some moral lesson to kids who apparently couldn't glean it from the show. "Remember kids, bullying is bad, and you should feel bad."