The School

Kinda makes me think of the movie silent hill even tho that movie was better but it makes me think of the knock off of it.

This dark fantasy follows a doctor as she travels a graffiti ridden school and encounters strange tribal tattooed children, ghosts, and zombies. The character designs come off as a big gaudy.. but decent. In fact, I feel the same can be said for a number of the films elements such as the acting, the set designs, the characters lines, the story etc. Over the top villains can be very hit or miss... and I feel as Zac's character was a miss. He was very close to something I liked.. maybe he was lacking some more backstory, which could have been subtly sprinkled in. The hospital scenes (in the real world) can be almost completely removed, especially the scene that is a strait rip from the Silent Hill film which had me and my friends sigh at each other. The scenes are not properly utilized to develop any characters or plot devices and only break up the story.. maybe if you shifted all of those to the beginning of the film, used them for character development and a connection to the mothers plight, and had our heroines entrance into the fantasy underworld be a little more unique. Having something like the scene with the mother reading bedtime stories take place at the beginning of the film, only to have Zac repeating those lines to her later might have been more effective than showing the scenes back to back. I am not movie writer though, just a casual viewer so from one viewer to another I say this movie was "almost good".

This was correctly promoted as a fantasy / horror. It isn't a horror so for those after that they would have been short changed. It had some genuine scary moments and the main character did a great job. Set design, make up and costumes great. Worth a watch

The concept was a good one, and it sounded like one that would be relatable to the viewer. One that sounded like it would be a creepy film with some emotional impact. 'The School' may not have the most exciting of titles, but it did have its premise going for it and was more than willing to look past the poor rating and reviews.

Good news is that 'The School' does have its moments and redeeming merits and it is not a waste of time, didn't find myself severely regretting watching it at least like has been the case with some films recently. While there was a lot wrong with it, 'The School' is a little better than has been indicated (personal opinion of course). The bad news is that 'The School' is not really a good film still and should have done much more with its concept. This is coming from someone who was really intrigued and thought it could be decent if executed well instead of the semi-watchable to lacklustre film it turned out to be.

It does have its slick and atmospheric moments visually, there are far cheaper films out there. The audio is not too obvious and it didn't intrude too much.

Found the acting better than average with a empathetic female lead, apart from moments of over-acting from the younger cast, and the characters at least had some rootable traits and didn't bore or annoy me. There is some unsettling creepiness in the early stages, as well as some emotional impact.

On the other hand, the storytelling does get muddled and confused in the final third especially (although most of the film is vague) and ends feeling incomplete with too much left hanging in the air. The middle also drags quite a lot. The creepiness should have been much more consistent, things do get predictable and the tension and suspense dissipates the duller and more confused the film gets later on.

Will McDonald's performance is uneven, sometimes good but at other points he overdoes it. Similarly the direction has assured moments but also too many pedestrian ones too. The dialogue is a mix of contrived and limp and the editing is too often rather choppy.

Summarising, semi-watchable but didn't quite do it for me. You can do with far worse though. 4/10 Bethany Cox

I did start writing a very positive review for this, about half way through watching the movie. But as I was writing, and started commenting on the positives, I also started looking at the negatives. And as the movie went on, the negatives started mounting up. But I found, on balance, despite its many faults, it had...something. There are some excellent set pieces, and genuinely creepy scenes, and I loved a lot of the sets. Some of the story telling is quite clumsy , and obvious, and loses its way in places. It does drag a little in the middle. Most of the child actors are fairly poor, and make you feel like your watching a high school play at times, either with their stilted delivery, or over emphasis. The main character Zac, has been watching Heath Ledger's Joker rendition waaay too much and overacts to the max. So you're probably wondering why I awarded this 6 stars? It just had that certain quirkiness and enough good scenes to make it worth while watching. Don't expect a masterpiece, but give it a go