Beatus

Was really intrigued by the concept, one of the most promising concepts for any film seen recently. Likewise with the attention grabbing title. The cover was creepy. Although the rating is as of now low, decided not to take it to mean it was going to be bad despite a lot of films seen recently with low ratings actually being that bad. Due to that there are low-rated films that to me were decent.

Seeing 'Welcome to Mercy', it may not be a great film and could have done much more with its potential. 'Welcome to Mercy' doesn't completely squander this potential though and there are good, the best very good, assets to the film, so it's far from a bad watch and a long way from a must avoid. Instead one of those watchable if uneven film worth a view once but not one of those films that will hold up to repeat viewings. Personal opinion of course.

Lets start off with the good things. 'Welcome to Mercy' looks surprisingly good, would go as far to call it great. It is very slick and stylish, with photography that does not look amateurish despite not being made on a big budget, and very atmospherically lit, a creepy moodiness is effectively evoked. The sound has an eeriness and doesn't come over as over-bearing or obvious.

Atmosphere-wise, 'Welcome to Mercy' is quite effective quite a lot of the time. There is an unsettling vibe, tension and jolting creepiness that keeps one glued, the build ups not too foreseeable and parts did make me bite my nails and my palms sweat. The third act is where the film is strongest, with great atmosphere and kept me engaged and glued to the seat, capped off by an unexpected ending. The acting is better than average and even most cases quite good.

However, the pacing is rather dull to begin with, parts could have been tightened and less stretched and not everything felt necessary, and some of the middle act could have done with more clarity in explanations, not everything makes as much sense as ought.

Despite not having a problem with the acting, the characters are thinly sketched with vague motivations and there are decisions that don't always ring true. The script tends to be pretty weak in momentum and flow (needed to be tighter and more natural) and didn't seem complete.

Overall, watchable and not a film to avoid but could have been much more. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Beatus or Welcome To Mercy? Another movie with a confusing title. Is it one or the other, or is it both? Nobody really cares, but it's just confusing, just like the plot of the movie. It was way too confusing to keep me fully interested for the entire movie. Sometimes a simplier story telling is just way more effective than trying to be clever or artistic. The acting wasn't terrible, just not amazing either. There was definitely a dark ambiance due to the filming and soundtrack but the story just failed, it just fell unfinished and rushed at one point, or at least to me it did.

Atmospheric movie, great acting, good musical scores however not very well executed in terms of great story telling. There were many confusing moments, boring noir scenes, and dark depressing feeling of hopelessness, which I understand is the aim of the producers. However the confusingness of the whole ordeal left much to be desired.

There is a story in this film, its just that it is told over too long a period of time. This film could either be made shorter or had a better script. It's filmed in Latvia but could be filmed anywhere as all you see are some wooden buildings and the inside of a church. I wouldn't recommend it as there are far better horror films on Netflix.

Very unique spin on the Exorcism genre but you'll have to wait until the 3rd act (the reveal) for you to really appreciate it the film on a whole. It's well acted, very atmospheric, but the it's pretty slow until you get to the finale. It relied too heavily on the twist at the end and that wasn't enough to carry the entire film.

Take Sixth Sense of example. The big twist is what made that movie awesome, but even without the twist it's still a good entertaining film. That's all that needed to happen Welcome to Mercy, because they had everything else going for it. Just wish they would have spent more time developing the first 2/3 of the story as well as the did the end, then this could have made it's way up the ranks of exorcism classics. Missed opportunity here. But again, very unique take on it. I commend the writer for that.