13 Sherwood Avenue

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. Do not go into this expecting a horror movie with scared or even anything too creepy.

This is a great example of what someone with a camera, a good idea, and people that enjoy creating something can do.

The story isn't spoon fed to you making it predictable and once the ending credits are going everything becomes clearer.

The actors did well. The characters weren't likable, but that was kind of the point.

There aren't any graphic effects or crazy mood lighting. It's essentially a fling footage movie that takes place in a normal house.

If you want a shorter movie with a good story then this is a good option.

I watched the movie mostly not expecting it to be a great movie just because it is a home made film and was surprised at how good it honestly was. You can see that the guy honestly enjoyed filming this and it's just so nice to see what you can do with a little budget and some cameras. I think that also the whole concept of the movie was amazing and yes the quality of it especially the "scary" parts could have been better but all in all I still believe that he did an amazing job at the whole thing . I also loved the lady that he was working for because she was honestly so wholesome but the lady he was writing the book for just had me in anger the whole time. The movie kept you on an edge of different emotions and it was awesome.

The idea was certainly interesting. A typical found footage haunted house movie like Paranormal Activity, but updated (and made very clear it's 2023 with awkwardly expositional social commentary) with technology including a home AI system (similar to Alexa/Siri).

While the movie is only 1 hour 12 minutes, it seriously felt like 3 hours. I think the goal was a slow-burn effect that many found footage films utilize, but it was more of a no-burn. It essentially repeated the same things over and over and over. And the "entity's" loud heavy breathing was a bit obnoxious and eliminated any creepy factor that could have been gained.

Lastly, the main character was extremely unlikeable, and I couldn't tell if that was intentional or not. Usually when a main character is very unlikeable you can see it's intentional for the plot of the movie (I think Deadstream is a good example of this) but here I wasn't sure if it was intentional or if it was just poor writing. (Or it could just be my own taste and dislike of people who obnoxiously overuse technology to do even the simplest of tasks, which this character does.)

I would have given most of my criticism less weight (and thus the movie a higher rating) if the movie hadn't felt like it was dragging forever.