Finale

This is a very well crafted little movie. It does offer quite a few clichés and might let itself down a bit after a very strong beginning, but I still feel like this deserves to be seen. Of course you could argue that the current rating suggests otherwise (the movie having only managed to get a bit more than half of what I gave it). But then again, shouldn't you judge for yourself?

Especially if you do have a thing for small little horror movies, with a neat idea, that do have a well crafted (filmed) product to show to you. The acting is nice and even if you do not like where it is heading, I do hope you like the movie as it is. I know I did (but then again I do have a thing for independent, well crafted horror movies)!

Things get off on the wrong sort of footing with this one it has to be said. Visuals painted in sickly green palette and a tad tricky to make out, it doesn't work for more than a minute or so but the film takes a good deal more than that before settling down into a regular color scheme. If you can get past this, Finale settles into a decent groove, a tense and smartly paced cult themed offering. It follows the Michaels family, devastated by the suicide of their eldest son, but getting into further trouble of a paranoid and possibly supernatural kind. As grieving mother Helen, Carolyn Hauck hits the right fraught and fragile notes, obsession and rising paranoia that comes off nicely and is well reflected in the films obsessive use of close ups. As daughter Kathryn, Suthi Picotte exudes fresh and likable natural star power and makes for a good grounded contrast to the mounting of strange goings on in the film. Other roles are solidly filled by an array of mostly newcomers, actors aren't always sparkling but no one comes off as a grinding dud, baddies have the right quiet menace, the teen casting is realistic enough and so on. Director John Michael Ehlers shows his inexperience with the aforementioned green lit opening debacle and also overuses the color red in the final block, as well as some other stylistic infelicities, mostly in the form of visually incoherent moments. Luckily he uses close ups well, makes some fun creepy visuals with clocks and mirrors and other everyday objects granted sinister significance and is quite good at conjuring a cramped, dangerous atmosphere. Which goes a long way towards helping out some of the more frustrating sequences. Some of the scenes of action do particularly well, a fine seat edge nervous intensity to them that really pushes the film a few notches. The film ends too abruptly and has a slightly sketchy feel to the writing, but its overall a pretty worthy and pleasing little offering. Probably won't please those who don't already have a taste for this level of production, but those who do its recommended.

Made it about 30 minutes before turning off. Just not good.

Poor acting.

Trite imagery which at the same time tries too hard - how is that even possible???

Is there no end to the scraps of papers littering the entire movie? Seriously, a constant mess of scraps of papers. Boring.

The walls which are splattered with black goop, or was it supposed to be blood? But I really don't care enough to figure out which it is.

After 30 minutes I should care about something, but I don't.

oh well.

*Spolier Free Review* I saw Finale last night and I felt this was an enjoyable low budget horror film, that had some really creative cinematography, and used a dark, and creepy visual effect technique that I haven't seen in too many movies. According the the behind the scene featurette, the producer of the film mentions the movie was shot was a small team of 8 people. It's truly and "indie movie" and it's a solid effort. The films strong points, are the look and style (Mise en scène) with some thought out and creative shots, as well as some damn good cinematography. Finale is work checking out, it's an interesting story that doesn't spoon feed you the answers, something I'll watch again to see what I missed the first time. his movie is worth checking out.

Not in the same ballpark, hemisphere, planet or galaxy. Now that's out of the way....this wasn't a bad indi film, it just wasn't that good either. Mother has gone off the deep end and husband and daughter act as if nothing is amiss. Mother covers every reflective surface with black paint, its splattered on the walls and all over her...let's sit down for a family meal...enough said