Entrance

Somehow a favorable review from Stephen King still hasn't provided this movie the cult fandom it deserves.

Though it was directed by two men, the story is from a female writer, and that shows in the film's excellent portrayal of the constant quiet threat of living in a big city as a single woman. The palpable tension in moments when harassment might become something worse builds a healthy paranoia in both the lead character and its viewers.

I say healthy paranoia because it is not ill-placed. By the end of the movie, we have been shown in unblinking detail exactly what there is to fear, and it is relentless and unforgiving. The power of the final act, though, only works because of the glacial pace of the first hour, making us froghtened and restless in various turns. Like life, the trouble comes at the point we're least ready.

After being treated to many 2-3 minute clips of a very average person with a very average life, I finally gave up at the point where they went to the club and she just sits there, talking to no one. If there were any life to this thing, it had been sucked out a long time before. It was like trying to think of things when your mind is the empty vaccum of space. This was just an abysmal void of nothingness. I skipped ahead to see what -if anything- happened, and I'm glad I stopped it when I did.

Go into 'Entrance' blindly.

Don't look up anything about this movie, not even a plot summary or trailer. I had no idea what kind of movie it was, so when it all came together in the end it was an unforgettable experience.

'Entrance' is a very creatively and craftily made no-budget movie. It is the best film of its kind that I've seen in years.

This is an incredible effort that I would recommend to anyone looking for something that is atypically effective and defies the norm.

The shot composition in 'Entrance' is outstanding, the directors certainly know how to frame a shot. The acting is superb, there was a great suspension of disbelief throughout that normally doesn't happen with such low budget efforts. These filmmakers have a bright future ahead of them, and I can't wait to see what they do next.

Great stuff all around, enjoy!

To lesser degrees, Entrance is much like critically acclaimed Michael Haneke's "Cache." It focuses on the verisimilitude of the medium without using shaky cam or other tricks. Rather than inundating with atmosphere and creepiness, he drains the audience with banality and normalcy. Defying the audience's expectations of a horror film helps to create a vacuum of uncertainty with a hard to place uneasiness.

Where your typical stalk and slash film might rely on popcorn scares to pass the time between kills, Entrance leaves you with nothing. On the right viewer it creates a sense of unsettling voyeurism and begins to wear on the actual conscience. On the wrong audience, it instills boredom and anger for lack of gore/shock/scares/etc - sadly there has been a lot of the wrong audience watching this film after Stephen King praised it in Entertainment Weekly. Not to knock King's typical fans or the readers of Entertainment Weekly, but this is not a pop-horror piece. Its more art-house indie horror than anything.

In recent years there has been a lot of interest in evolving the horror genre past its current state and in that regards Entrance may be ahead of its time. Fans of the ultra-slow-burn horror such as "Red White and Blue" or Ti West's "House of the Devil," should certainly have a profound appreciation for this film. Typical horror fans may only like the final twenty minutes when the pace finally picks up.

I for one immensely enjoyed Entrance, but thoroughly understand how a vast majority of its viewers simply won't like it. I rated it lower than the very similar film Cache due to a few issues with the sound and simply because on a repeat viewing I didn't find all the cerebral stimulation that Cache offers.

This movie follows an aimless young woman in LA. That would be fine for 20-30 minutes, and it's bearable for a while mainly because she's beautiful. It's not until the very last 10 or 15 minutes that something happens, terribly unexpected and frankly, quite disjointed. We kept waiting for something to happen, and by the time it did, my husband was fast asleep. Not that I blame him-- I was jealous. This movie is perfect to help you get to bed at night. Some people called this movie a "slow burn." I'd say it's NO burn, and then sudden burn. Others say we need too much stimulation that we call this boring. But the main character also felt that her life was boring. So why should we have to suffer through it, too? Wow, I honestly can't believe IMDb is forcing me to write more. There is more action in my review than there was in the entire movie. I registered on this site just so I could write this review and warn others away.