Alena

After the first four minutes I realized that I have never seen actors care less about their roles. I had high hopes, since I loved the novel, but I really can't take the acting serious. It feels like I'm watching a high school-project.

Well, this is a troubled tale. It is based on a graphic novel, of the same name, by Kim W Andersson. The draw for me was Amalia Holm and, as expected, she brings a layered performance with both vulnerability and peril. All the performances are quite good. There is violence in this storytelling and mental distress but I'm going to take a risk and not call it horror. It seems to me the trauma is the product of untenable circumstances in a young woman's life exasperated by bullying. I give this film a 7 (good) out of 10. {Drama} Swedish with subtitles.

After watching Alena I couldn't help having the feeling that I watched that kinda movie a dozen of times before. If it was exceptional then it wouldn't matter but unfortunately it isn't. It's been done before and way better. The story starts interesting but the more the story advances the more boring it gets. Watching high school bully girls for the entire movie is just boring after awhile. And the poor little girl they pick on and that is supposed to unleash her evil power is just not creepy enough to make it an interesting horror movie. Actually I don't think it has anything to do with a horror movie. Just one of those movies you watch with one eye open. Amalia Holm should taint her eyebrows dark as well if she wants to be darkhaired. That's just an information to her, as a bonus.

This movie proves that Hollywood is getting worse and worse at making horror movies. There is nothing unique or special about "Alena"'s story yet the movie is engaging, unsettling and genuinely unnerving by superior craftsmanship. The story takes place at a Swedish private school filled with positively "mean girls." When a public school student is thrust into the system after having left her school on mysterious grounds the story begins. All of the girls are perfectly cast. How can you not hate them?

When the horror and thrills begin they are uniquely surprising, not resting on the tropes of the well-trodden story. This movie knows what it is and provided a very enjoyable evenings worth of entertainment.

This is a teen story. It's about queerness, it's about girls, it's about self-hatred. Taking place at a girl school, and following a girl at a new school. It contains insecurity and bullying. I don't wanna do any spoilers, but it's not what you think it is.

This movie is very much about teenage girls. Both their best and worst qualities. It's a movie that will sit with you. Somehow it captures so well what it is to be a teenage girl.

This needs to reach is audience. I think any queer person will enjoy this story. It's isn't very horror like, I think maybe if you don't like horror you can enjoy this if you enjoyed teenage stories and queer stories. It's happy and sad at the same time, and it feels very real somehow.