Apparence trompeuse

I hope the title of the review helps others like me, who go into this expecting a Blumhouse movie released in conjunction with Prime a few weeks before Halloween, to be a scary movie. Now that's put this aside

The cast do their best with this ridiculous plot, that would borderline work as a poor 25 minute episode of Inside Number 9

The writing is pretty dreadful, the direction bland and lacking much in the way of thrills The movie is glacier paced, without the script or character development to hold it up Someone needs to go back to film school - It's so bad the you will see the ending coming within minutes of the incident itself There's no attempt to even throw the viewer in the other direction

I would recommend watching the first 10 mins, then mins 58 to 60, and the last 5 minute and save yourself a precious evening you could be spending on something much more worthwhile

Only real reason I'm writing this is to counter everyone else's absurdly angry reviews. This was a decent story, well acted, and no I didn't know where it was going. I went along with the ride. People are mad at the plot because the parents did stupid things... well, people do stupid things. Isn't that the point? Also, if a movie inspired a reaction from you... isn't that also the point?

The inciting incident is dealt with pure and utter stupidity. Even the Lawyer character is dumb, so dumb, maybe the dumbest. When is a sociopath NOT a sociopath? When they are a stupid 15 year old. A crime drama with No Crime, until the last 7 minutes of the film. The 2 daughter characters are 15 year old morons. The ending is staggeringly stupid, and contrived. Did no one but the writer read this script before they began shooting? Or funding?

This is one of those movies that makes you repeatedly think 'What the hell?' Like the girl running away from the father. She gets away then starts waking down the residential street one block away. Who the hell goes one block away and then out into the open?? And who walks down the middle of the street? I can honestly say that I have never walked down the middle of any street. Then when she sees the car behind her coming fast she starts running while staying in the street. Wtf?? That's this movie in a nutshell. Ridiculous scenarios that are just not believable.

This movie definitely deserved a much higher rating than all those godawful quick-and-cheap movies being churned out by the dozens. I thought the story was intriguing and kept me engaged throughout, the twist at the end was also well done, the photography was high quality. People who hated this film should stick to their freaking reality tv shows and shut up.