Sweetheart

The early parts of 'Sweetheart' reminded me a lot of 'Castaway' and it made me appreciate 'Castaway' a lot more than I ever did before. It's extremely hard to make a movie entertaining when you have only one character and the only plot device is your character trying to survive. 'Castaway' was lucky enough to have the extremely watchable Tom Hanks in the lead role - I could watch that man paint a house and probably enjoy it. 'Sweetheart' has Kiersey Clemons, who while obviously not on the level of Hanks, did a commendable job of keeping the movie watchable and pushing it through to the next stage.

This is a very dark film. A lot of scenes take place at night and it can be quite difficult to make out exactly what is going on a lot of the time. Also the film is very short. Coming in at just 82 minutes, they obviously didn't want to push things with what can be quite a slowly paced film at times.

If you're not enjoying the beginning of 'Sweetheart' I would suggest you push through it. The film does get better as it goes along. As some more characters come into the mix and we get more of a view of the monster - a very unique monster that I quite liked the design of - things certainly become a little more enjoyable. I was a little let down by the ending. I would've liked to see a little more creativity used, but that's not a major. I enjoyed 'Sweetheart' without ever really loving it. Worth a look, but don't go in with your expectations too high.

I think that most of the ratings for this movie are a little low. I found this movie interesting and it kept me wondering what might happen next. The acting was a little better than I expected, good enough to carry it along without wanting to turn it off. The only thing that irritates me is that I found myself thinking that Jenn's initial survival skills were a little lame.

Worth a watch just for the lead actress being able to carry this off with good style. Defo a talent on the rise here.

SWEETHEART is a beautiful example of excellent filmmaking on a shoestring. A minimal cast of talented young actors (especially the female lead) on a beach is simplicity at it's finest and proof positive that scary monsters don't have to cost millions to be effective. The edge-of-your-seat suspense is the best I've experienced in a very, very long time. Well done!

Most of this film involves a woman trapped on an island, alone. Still, don't expect this film to be boring. The use of visual storytelling is quite impressive, and while it's not quite a masterpiece, it doesn't drag the way the premise implies it may.

Highly recommended for anyone who loves horror, or has a Castaway fetish.