Pledge

This movie has a distinct Funny Games feel to it, but takes a little less time developing the personality of the antagonists, which is a shame. There are touches, but most are peppered in to move the story forward, ratger than really setting them apart in terms of their goals and reasons for doing what they do.

There is a good punt of playing with audience expectations, so that the film keeps you guessing rather than simply being predictable, but it almost feels like it ends too quickly because of this. Several threads are left unexplored and a little more could have gone a long way to making this a much more rewarding watch.

Overall the film is good and never really lags or feels cheap. It has something to say and is delivered well. With a little more development it could have been really great.

Pathetic excuse for a horror flick,find something better to do.

So I saw The Pledge a few weeks ago at the theater. I really knew nothing about the film, but the previews made it look like an interesting horror/revenge film. Overall I liked the movie, but it suffering from unoriginality and an inconsistent tone.

The plot of the movie starts out simple enough. A stereotypical group of cliche nerds go around campus trying to pledge at different fraternities, but are rejected at every opportunity. Finally they seem to have struck gold as they are invited to pledge at a secret fraternity that promises sex, drugs, and popularity. Of course nothing is as it seems and the film evolves into a mix of black comedy, torture, gore, and revenge.

The movie overall did a good job with its pacing. It had a very well-made opening scene that set the tone for the rest of the film. The film was quite short, but kept the excitement up with ample amounts of psychological and physical abuse. The movie had a few interesting twists thrown in as well that felt quite natural for the flow of the film. Plus it had a satisfying and well done final arc that was a solid payoff.

The first half of the film acted as the set up is a bit of a slow burn introduction to what will come. The film makes it quite clear from the beginning that the secret fraternity has ulterior motives. At that point it was simply a waiting game for all hell to break loose. It wasn't exactly suspense driven, but it did build a bit of tension and anxiety waiting for the fraternity to snap.

For a low budget film the movie was directed well. I didn't really see any major problems except for a lack of originality and and overuse of cliches and tropes. It's a fun film, but don't expect them to reinvent the wheel here. On top of that I can't say I was impressed with all the actors. A few of the performances in particular were quite cringe-worthy.

The biggest flaw of the film seemed to be that it didn't quite know what it wanted to be. It had elements of dark humor, torture porn, gore, psychological abuse, and horror, but never really pushed anything far enough. The film could have added more gore and blood for shock value or cut out the bits of dark humor.

I also really had a hard time with the internal believability of the film. Perhaps they were trying to make a statement regarding just how powerful peer pressure could be, but I just could not understand a few of the characters decisions. It really takes away from a film when characters make stupid decisions purely as plot devices.

The Pledge was a fun, but unoriginal and predictable film that could have benefited from a bit of polish. It wasn't a bad movie, but it never really found the right tone. I enjoyed the build up of tension and some of the gore, but it never really pushed anything far enough. A 6 out of 10.

I have just watched "The Pledge" and was pleasantly surprised. It was very watchable, had a pretty good story and a good ending. The actors were great, they did a fine job. None of them were known to me and I was again, pleasantly surprised. I can recommend this one.

Three nerds crash a college party but they soon get kicked out for not being cool. However a hot chick invites them to an alternative party, held at an exclusive house. The vodka flows, the girls are randy, the boys have a great time. They get invited back the next day for a "fun" 48 hour pledge but when the first part involves the boys getting (forcibly) branded we know that they are in for a very tough time. Plenty of torture porn on offer here, not as graphic as say Hostel or Saw but still very violent and nasty. But amongst the horror we are treated to some humour in the dialogue, nerd David with his thick specs could have come from any number of 1980's college movies. There are a couple of decent twists towards the end. I found Pledge to be well made and enjoyed it, not sure that I'd give it a second shot though.