Reclusion

Enjoyable movies are getting hard to find, sit back relax, this movie does the job. Spooky is good. Did a good job for what they had, I was actually surprised by how low the rating is, and I've seen plenty with higher rating that wasn't as good, so yeah I think it's getting trolled.

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.

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.

We see a young couple try to get an old reclusive man named Tim to come out of his shell, but it takes a while to figure out why they are trying to help him. He seems haunted by a supernatural force that makes him sick and short of breath, and he has flashbacks to pieces of something in the past that is suggested to have caused his trauma.

Be patient with the plot development, as it is worth the payoff at the end. Not so likable was the main character Nick's boy scout like naivete, nor the rather useless presence of the psychiatrist in trying to unravel the mystery of what ails Tim.