Emelie

'Emelie' is one of those films that is a lot more fun if you just turn your brain off and don't think about it too much. Unfortunately for me I don't like to do that. It you stop and think about the whole story for a second you'll quickly realise none of it makes a whole lot of sense. Without spoiling any character's motives, I'll just say that there isn't a lot of common sense or reasoning going on, most of which is lacking in order to stretch this movie out to an already short 80 minute run time. The writing in thrillers is rarely perfect, but there has to be a limit to the amount of absurdity and foolishness you can accept.

It's not all bad though. Sarah Bolger in the lead role did a fantastic job. She had an eerie creepiness about her character, while always keeping some charisma in the mix. The children also did a very good job, giving performances that were above average. Often in these types of movies the kids become annoying very quickly and ruin the experience, but that was never the case here. There was some potential behind all this that I think has been squandered with some sloppy writing in parts. Director Michael Thelin in his first film did a fine job with what he had to work with and can keep his head up. Tweak the script here and there and you'd have yourself a very fine thriller.

Emelie's impact falls short of what was intended for it. While disturbing, it never goes full force and almost borders on tame sometimes. The motivation seemed unnecessary to me and the film lost intensity the longer it went on. Also- I'm being picky at this point!- the transitions really bugged me. But, again, it was okay.

Led by the committed performance of Sarah Bolger, 'Emelie' unfolds as a creepy and atmospheric slow burn through the first hour or so, then it shifts into a kinetic, violent thriller. It never quite becomes what I consider to be a horror flick, though certain moments will evoke horror in viewers, as the twisted babysitter torments the three siblings in increasingly unsettling ways.

The music sets the tone early - right from the opening scene. A girl mentions to her friend on the phone that she isn't happy that she's been roped into babysitting tonight, then she's abruptly kidnapped by a passing car. Cut to a dad picking up a different girl and driving her to his house to babysit, and we immediately suspect that this "babysitter" is not who she claims to be. At first, she plays nice with the kids (two boys and a girl), returning to the oldest boy the game that his mom took away and letting them all paint on the wall. But her façade only holds up for so long. After she subjects the children to a particularly scarring video, they become suspicious of her, and I become suspicious of the film's concepts. The babysitter's goals and the film's goals are not in harmony. She wants something and needs to behave normally to get it, but the film wants to scare us, and to do that she must behave abnormally. At some point the film leans too heavily toward the scare efforts, which makes the babysitter's actions and plan far less believable. The first hour or so sets the mood. It's creepy and unnerving in a tame way that's particularly effective, but this approach is then abandoned in favor of one that resembles a more conventional violent thriller. Then we see the classic tropes: Characters make illogical, flat-out-dumb decisions and viewers are ambushed by a few jump scares. The stylistic turn mostly works but is nonetheless disappointing. The early moody creepfest had me so uncomfortable that I had to watch through the partially obstructed view of my fingers. It was cringey to the maximum. Though the second half of the film contained more action, I felt less suspense. The reveal was far less affecting than the eerie unknown.

Perhaps if the filmmakers put a bit more effort into the babysitter's backstory and plan, the entire movie would have held together more effectively. A few alterations could have lifted this from a watchable thriller to a terrific one.

The movie started out promising enough but once the (dodgy) motive was revealed half-way through, the logical loopholes in the plot and weaknesses overall of the script started to show and it just became rather... meh.

And there was very little pay off in the end, it was supposed to be a thrilling ending but it just didn't work at all.

I don't know what more to say really, it's not a whole lot you can say about it as it is such a simple movie and it's impossible to talk about the plot without spoiling it.

But the acting was alright (Sarah Bolger will probably go on to do bigger and better things) and the cinematography was stellar, but yeah overall it just wasn't a great movie.

Initially I thought this film was going to be great, it was unusual, and very different. The atypical babysitter under siege horror this was not, so I applaud them for twisting the original format. Unfortunately after a bright start, where you were left wondering what on Earth was going on, it just fell really flat, the plot made virtually no sense, I mean how on Earth did she know she'd end up there? What was the point in the entire charade? It makes no sense. At times I thought the script was a little tasteless to say the least, putting kids through what she did was unnecessary at times, I didn't care much for it.

So it's a real mixed bag, a great idea, but unfortunately the execution was poor, the acting was great and the production values were strong. Sarah Bolger was the best thing about it.

Too many wasted opportunities. 5/10