The Arbors

The official trailer on YouTube makes this look like a monster movie. But if you're looking for a monster movie, this isn't it. There is a creature, a really cool looking scary one, but it's not on screen much and doesn't have much to do with the story. Before you spend time and money on this movie, just know what you're not getting.

What is this movie about? Hard to say. The story revolves around Ethan, who discovers the creature but is otherwise a very dull person who does nothing, sleeps during the day, and avoids most people. The only person Ethan likes is his younger brother, Shane. They still live in the rural town they grew up in and seem stuck there.

And now people in this small town start disappearing and turning up dead, their torn up bodies found scattered around town. And only Ethan knows why.

This movie - Not a monster movie! - is painfully slow, taking gobs of time for very little to happen as it simmers and creates atmosphere. There's very little action. Much of the storytelling occurs through dialogue, especially long voicemail messages. Pay attention to these long verbalizations, they're practically narration and the audience's best hope to interpret what's going on or decipher the characters' motivations. There are some chilling bits of scenes, particularly a single line right at the halfway point of the movie, that indicate something very spooky is going on, but good luck figuring out what that is. I have some theories, but those would be spoilers. (See Denis Villeneuve's underrated Enemy (2013). I suspect it inspired the writers of this movie!)

To enjoy this movie requires A LOT of patience. Be prepared.

The main character is not a likeable person and it takes too long for the story to unfold. People are being killed left and right and no one bothers to ask him why his hand is bandaged. The ending is lousy, too.

Yeah, I was lured in by the movie's rather interesting cover. And indeed, I was expecting this to be a monster movie of sorts, given the spindly arachnid-like legs on the cover.

But this movie wasn't a monster movie. Instead it was a movie about a degrading mind succumbing to a sort of psychosis. So it was quite far from what I was expecting it to be. But hey, maybe I should have read the synopsis before watching the movie.

So was "The Arbors" a good movie? No. It was watchable, yes. But the storyline was just way too slow paced, too predictable and had not enough interesting contents to it, which made the movie feel unnaturally long and dull. So writers Chelsey Cummings and Clayton Witmer didn't exactly churn out something that will knock you off your feet.

It should be said that the acting performances in the movie were good, especially by Drew Matthews, whom played Ethan Daunes. But it was a real shame that the storyline was so bland and predictable.

Visually then "The Arbors" was adequate. Don't expect to be blown away by a myriad of special effects though. Whatever special effects that were there were scarce and adequate enough. But luckily, "The Arbors" is not a movie that is heavily reliant on CGI effects.

Ultimately, then "The Arbors" is a movie that is very bland and forgettable. I doubt that I will ever watch it again, as the storyline just doesn't have the material to support more than a single viewing.

My rating of "The Arbors" lands on a less than mediocre four out of ten stars. It was an interesting and alluring movie cover, but the same didn't go for the actual movie.

I had high hopes for this movie, the storyline sounded really interesting.. However, as seems to be the trend these days, it skirted around the main storyline, and the horror/monster was really just a metaphor for the rest of the film. There was very little action, the "monster" is never fully revealed, and it really is just a drama. As far as I'm concerned, not a horror movie, a psychological thriller, with a about 10 seconds of alien thrown in.

The concept is ok and the story line is reasonable. But the main person the lock Smith seems to really know how to act. Maybe a different actor could of saved this movie.

I stuck with it and to be honest I've seen worse.