Reclusion

I watch a great deal of horror films and thought this was going to be another of those in the "okay" category at best. However I was pleasantly surprised.

The basic story is that a mans wife dies by apparently supernatural causes. After 19 years he becomes a recluse, never setting foot out side his house, which still appears to have unexplained phenomena occurring. Then the young couple next door start doing shopping and such for him, and become drawn into the mystery

A few people have mentioned production values, but I don't agree. If the story telling and direction is good enough it doesn't need big fancy special effects, indeed they often detract from the story. There are some genuinely creepy moments throughout the film. The acting is excellent, the story has an original twist and the directing is fine. It's hard to say much more without giving away any plot points.

My only pieces of criticism would be, one of the plot twists is fairly obvious and much used.

The story becomes a little muddied in the middle, and you never really seem to find out how the couple next door originally became involved, or their intended role.

The ending is just a little disappointing, and felt inconclusive.

But all in all I really enjoyed the ride with this one.

But not much. Had this low budget movie been edited and sequenced differently, it could have been a 6 or 7. It's like the writer knows how all the parts are meant to fit together and can't see they've made if too difficult for the audience. Or they didn't know how it all fit, and wants the viewers to put it together. Too esoteric, but not worthy of that level of audience critiquing. Well acted. And pretty well filmed. The scenes are spot on atmospherically. But the director has pretty much the same atmosphere with indoor scenes shot elsewhere...movie would be more powerful if the institutional and office scenes were clear, crisp, more sterile and less muted. It really needed a scene where much of the history and current happenings are explained. I know this can be unsubtle, but it might make the plot richer.

So kid is suspect of something odd going on in her room., mommy goes to investigate and gets sucked under the bed. Daddy, pops some pills, and goes to sleep.... okay what is going on? Not sure...

This quickly descends into a lot of non witty dialogue, and pretty much pure boredom. Dad is getting assaulted by some spirit that seems to attack him in his sleep.

Okay and I got lost somewhere because now a hot girl is getting tormented as well. And I don't know why I thought the focus was on the father.

Okay I couldn't keep up nor handle it. I think maybe it was just over my head. But I am still giving it a score!

2/10.

Great job! I absolutely love this movie. Thumbs up!!! I encourage people to watch this movie because you will be on the edge of your seat. I like the characters in the movie. They were authentic and scary. I love scary movies. This is a must see! If you are intrigued with paranormal activity then you will not be disappointed. The director also did a great job

Let's face it, low budget horror isn't known to be good quality movie material With a 3.6 rating on IMDb, I thought I was in for a wasted hour and a half of a really badly scripted movie probably with the type of soundtrack that doesn't line up with the character's voices or the screen transitions.

I was pleasantly surprised. The audio and visual are great. Don't get me wrong, there aren't going to be any amazing special effects, but I appreciate that in these modern times. I also really liked that the movie didn't capitalize on weird loud noises during quiet suspenseful moments and other cheesy tricks that we see too often in horror these days. Nothing grabbing out of the screen at you, no seat-jumping screams when you don't expect it.

What I also didn't expect was a good plot and a good ending also. The acting was pretty good too. All around solid film. I most appreciated the original concept. We all know that's hard to come by if we are horror fans, and I definitely am. It's what drives me to watch low budget, badly rated movies like this one- for those hidden gems and those overlooked cult classics.

Give this one a shot, it's worth it.