Where's Rose

As I sat down to watch the 2021 thriller "Where's Rose", I did so without ever having heard about the movie. I happened to stumble upon it by random chance, and of course with it being a movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I opted to give the movie a fair chance.

Writer and director John Mathis didn't manage to deliver a movie that fell particularly in my taste. The storyline and narrative of the movie was just simply too slow paced and uneventful. I didn't really care much for the characters in the movie, and then it becomes difficult to invest oneself into the narrative.

The storyline in "Where's Rose" was pretty straight forward, and I am sure that there is an audience out there for a slow burning movie such as this turned out to be. I, however, prefer movies with a bit more pacing to it. I found the narrative way too slow and uneventful, so there was very little enjoyment to be had here for me.

The acting performances in the movie were fair, however I just didn't care much for the one-dimensional characters that the actors and actresses had to portray.

As for "Where's Rose" being a thriller or horror movie, well... Let's just say you're not in for anything particularly thrilling or scary.

My rating of "Where's Rose" lands on a three out of ten stars.

Day #2

So, this is a bit of a strange one. The ambition was there and Mathis does a great job overall but the treatment used to cover the overall theme may have been a misstep.

Hovering somewhere between a Lifetime Sunday Feature, Arthouse and Fantasy (think Guillermo del Toro) the movie is over before you can truly commit.

The flow and pacing were acceptable, and I credit Mathis for attacking such brave subject matter, however it never truly gels and one feels sated solely from the socially conscious message, getting nothing from the horror elements at all.

Also, the acting was very uneven, save for Ty Simpkins, Annaliese Judge and Skyler Elise Philpot.

5.5/10

#31DaysOfHalloween2022.

I really liked this little film. I'm quite surprised that it only has a current rating of 4.x. Yes, as others have said, the acting isn't the best, especially the mom is quite cringeworthy, as well as some of the supporting cast. But, I felt the little girl and her brother were quite good and definitely carried the movie.

What I particularly liked about it was the very engrossing sense of Mystery, where you really begin to wonder WTF is going on. Nothing seems quite right, and SOME of it is fairly clear. BUT... it is not until you get to the end that you truly understand what has been going on.

It is a nice blend of genuine Mystery, Psychological Thriller, and the Supernatural. And, I feel that the director did an excellent job at balancing everything. Again, yes, it WOULD have been nice if he could have elicited some better performances by the supporting actors, but I think overall he guided the story quite well.

Now you have to be very, VERY patient with this one, because it would be quite easy to get impatient with all the ambiguity and lack of 'Action'. If you honestly get bored really easily, then I would humbly suggest that you give this one a pass. But, to me the whole point of the story and the way it is developed, is that the audience is drawn along with a strong involving sense of 'What the hell is going to happen next?' and 'Why the hell did that happen?' And, when you do get to the end, the explanation I feel is indeed very satisfying. Because it ties together some feelings and questions that the audience may have had, but didn't quite know why (I KNOW that sounds super vague, but I don't want to give anything away : )

Anyway, IF you don't mind a really slow burn story, and you can be very patient and deal with the ambiguity of what is going on or where it is going and do not get bored easily, and if you appreciate a good Mystery with Supernatural elements, you might have a good chance of enjoying this one...

First of all, the acting is fine. I don't understand why IMDB reviewers love to jump on bandwagons and parrot each other like birds in a forest, but the acting is FINE. Some of the actors were obviously more talented and experienced than others (the mother was a clear standout), but everyone did their best and were believable, for the most part. The only really rotten apple was the titular child, Rose. She is not very talented, and delivered her lines with all of the aplomb of a grade school production of Hamlet. So, the reviewers criticizing the acting are either just being nasty for no reason, or just want to add another penny to the pile. Don't even bother listening to those people.

As for the movie was fine, nothing to really call home about. It wasn't scary, the special effects were a joke, and the script was as simplistic as it gets with nothing even remotely unique happening. But the final act came out of left field, tied everything together, and made a truly mediocre film watchable. Let me tell you, those last 20 minutes had me INVESTED in what the ending was going to be. For that alone I bumped my review up 2 points.

The real horror in this movie can be found in the horrible parenting on display. You raise a son to his college years, fill his head with all of these delusions of grandeur because he's good at throwing a ball, and wonder why he behaves the way he does. Bad parenting is scarier than any Hollywood monster could ever hope to be, because it CREATES those monsters. Teach people to do their damn jobs as parents and so many of societies issues would disappear overnight.

That being said, movie? Mediocre.

Ending? Worth the run time.

Scariest thing about the movie? Entitled teenagers.

Took me a while to get round to this purely because some of the reviews were very negative.

When I did eventually watch it, I was so glad I did.

It's a great little mystery horror. Despite a low budget, the cinematography is great, the acting is on-point (with a few forgivable exceptions) and the script is clever. Theres' a twist that is sign-posted throughout but never obviously enough that it ruins the ending. I had suspicions of what was going to happen but still found the final reveal rewarding.

There are several negative reviews on IMDB but, for the most part, these seem to miss the point. In particilar, a review titled "Doesn't make any sense" misses the point entirely. There's more than one way to interpret this film and there is a lot of scope to unpick the symbolism; that reviewer clearly just took the whole thing literally.

As I said in the title, if slowburn horror appeals to you, and you don't mind lower-budgey (but still very well made!) indie films, you could do a lot worse than this!