Amber's Descent

Boring, annoying and painfully slow. This is the exact description of Amber's Descent, a movie that wanted to be smart, a little artsy and even thought it could deliver more.

The main problem of the movie is that it plays a single card throughout it's runtime: it's not what it seems to be! Absolutely every scene you get to see, it is immediately shown to have been fake, an illusion, a dream, anything but reality. And it goes on and on, till the movie eventually ends. This is the entire plot, different scenes, mixed together, where you have to keep acting surprised that once again, what you just saw was not really happening.

The acting was bad, whenever some talent had to be surfaced, it did not, the characters somewhat weird, but on purpose and the dialogue overall is made out of stereotypical lines. Pretty much what you would expect one to deliver, it does so. Anyway, all in all Amber's Descent is not a pleasant way of passing some time, I genuinely recommend you try something else. I don't know if it wanted to be a thriller as much as it was psychological, but there is no horror, no thrills and no real brain.

Cheers!

Not only is Amber's Descent beautifully shot, but from start to finish I couldn't take my eyes off of Amber. Her hair, her wardrobe, and most importantly her acting, was fantastic. I couldn't help but notice all the little details, like the shadows on the piano, and how the light came in through the leaded glass windows. Beautiful! So many little twists and turns, and I loved how it all came together in the end. Well done!

So refreshing to see original content. Great film .

Amber's Descent harkens back to the 1970's tonal horror films. In particular I am reminded of Let's Scare Jessica To Death. Albeit because of budget constraints and unfamiliar cast, these atmospheric horror films invoke unworldly vignettes set in small towns of nowhere in particular. It is the journey of the netherworld that helps define the film from start to finish. Where are we? What time frame does it take place in? It doesn't matter. In fact in any of these films the location can be a literal Dantesque hell from start to finish.

Like as with, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, Amber's Descent is really about a journey of her psyche. Is anything real? The over-the top characters and portrayals are cries from her emotional id. This is not a film that is supposed to have a clear point A to Point B. This is a film to get under your skin and and haunt you late at night watching it alone on a small TV in an old house in the country.

This is an anachronistic tale in the vein of all late night horror tales that I saw as a child and I still think about as an adult. Were they works of great cinema? No. Did they do their job and creep into my subconscious - yes.

In fact, like the character Amber, after all these years, I am uncertain if what I saw actually existed or was it my childhood innocence manifesting something for me to label as my fear?

I just gave one of the worst reviews on IMDB after trying to see this movie, having quit after watching for 40 minutes, however, something kept telling me to watch it until the end.

I guess I quit before the movie started developing more, since it slowly burns until it starts getting interesting.

All I can say is, it could be a LOT better. The photography is spot on, the house, colors and even garden are a must, but the slow pace can get boring for a long time if you have no pacience for slow burning mysteries.

Actor wise, it's no nomination for awards, but Kayla Stanton is perhaps the best actor on this, all the rest varies from very bad (sorry Michael Mitton) to getting the job done.

What the movie lacks is more suspense, to build the tension more until you get scared, to develop a bit more when anything relevant happens. As it stands it fails to scare and to take advantage of the mood to build a proper horror, haunting movie.

If a door is to be closed or open, let it happen at the right time, with the right music tone, with the right reaction from the actors. Sometimes I felt there was no reaction to really scary situations and this is where the main actor (Kayla) fails, failing to convince she was really terrified.

Want a good example of a very low budget movie, with 3 actors only that is a masterpiece? Watch "The Dead Room (2015)" - this is the kind of suspense I am talking about.

On top of all this, the ending seemed rushed and somehow fell in the old cliche of "let's confuse the viewer and in the end we just frame it in one word". It somehow ruined the whole movie for me.

As a curiosity, I found someone crouching on a corner of a scene that supposedly should not be there, I think this was not on purpose and it's towards the middle of the movie.

All in all, a below average mystery haunting movie, that could be so much more if the right elements were there, but a good effort nonetheless and very watchable, if you have a real taste for slow pace movies.