matdog321

I want to preface this review by saying I did not finish the final 40 minutes of this film. Take my review with a grain of credibility, but I think I saw enough warning signs to know this wasn't for me.

The Outwaters has to be one of the biggest disappointments in my life and that is not an understatement, i had been waiting to see this film since it's initial buzz and can't help but feel disconnected to cosmic and body horror, i was completely let down with the actual contents of the film despite having about 45 minutes left, i did not care. Maybe this is my fault for intentionally trying to keep the plot elements vague from finding out what happens.

The basic gist of the film is that a group of friends are going to help each other shoot some stuff in the desert because of them is an artist. I'm seeing a lot of reviews saying the initial set up is a tedious bore, but that was my favorite part of it all to be honest. Being a musician myself I just really loved seeing this group of friends DIY the hell out of a music video for their little indie singer friend. I even loved the volleying and (i'm guessing improvisational) banter, it's when we get to the third card that film completely goes in a direction I immediately lost interest.

I was intrigued for the first couple minutes of this sequence, unsettled even. The film opens strong and the third card was starting to show hints of that exact tension-building fear, and then *fart noise* ... it pooped the bed. Ultimately my interest and fear were evaporated as soon we see the leading events, I hate that I feel I could take this concept and do something better, I hate that I'm writing that in this review as if I know frick all about the hard work and ambition it took to make this, still, as a viewer I just did not vibe. I knew the mundane shots of curtains were a red flag but I kept going, my mistake.

The sound mix is also disappointing, there are several scenes where the group are spooked at night because of the sound of odd thunder, it sounds like a canon exploding. This isnt the problem, the problem is that it's supposed to be coming from outside of a tent in the middle of a desert and yet it sounds like the most flat, pasted on FX mp3 file in Post. I'm not sure how the sound was actually made, but I did not feel immersed and the atmosphere was just not there. It wasn't like the creepy baby crying in the Blair Witch Project, where it sounded so faint and coming from any direction. I just feel if half of the "scary" moments are coming from a pitch black screen and creepy noises, have those noises be the best noises ive ever heard, or at LEAST above the quality grade of a youtube video.

I guess while I'm talking bad about how cheap this feels I think one of the worst parts about the beginning of the film was showing me these earthquake scenes where the director is clearly just shaking the camera and then swinging a lamp before pressing record again to make it look like those lamps are reeling back and forth from these pesky LA tectonic plates. These types of mundane filmmaking ideas really bothered me because I don't want to feel smarter than the movie I am watching. I want to watch a movie completely puzzled and unnerved by how they pulled something off, so thank you The Outwaters for making me feel like a prick for thinking my imagination for this movie was better than what I got.

So at the beginning of the film we learn these "3 cards" were picked up and edited chronologically as raw evidence/footage for us to view right? Adding experimental shots and ominous background music does not make any sense and completely takes me out of that immersion. Like is that my fault that I wore such good headphones? Maybe this will work better for me on my busted 2014 Smart Tv? I hope one day I come around because I did see potential and that was the entire reason I had so much hype in the first place, it wasnt so much the word of mouth but how much i've been craving a found footage film that feels found.

Probably won't give this another chance even if a friend of mine absolutely insisted i watch the final 40-ish minutes, i just feel like I could see behind the curtain too many times. The weaknesses weren't hidden as well as i had hoped.

I just got home from the movie, and I decided to write a review based solely on how satisfied I found myself with the movie. It rarely happens that I am pleased with a slasher-type horror: pacing can be off, characters can be unlikable, and the kills are off-screen or boring. I think Brightburn hit the mark on all 3 of these things. They even have infamous tropes from horror movie cliches, but it works because of this unique spin on them.

I say that this movie is more like Orphan because while it is heavily focused on the "What If" situation of Superman becoming bad, it follows the familiar formula of a psychological thriller with a killer kid. Having said that, that is not necessarily a bad thing when you add superpowers to the mix, instead, you walk away with something fresh and fun. I'm not even the biggest fan of superhero films, the horror aspect was what got me to buy a ticket, and I have to say even the origin of Brandon Breyers was impressive.

I have always been a fan of Elizabeth Banks, but I think she is especially likable in this film as the mother who doesn't want to believe that her son is actually evil. You feel that she is clinging onto anything to believe her son still has good in him and feel for her character. The father is also empathetic but I didn't think he stood out as much as Banks. The kid playing Brandon was also just okay, but I have to say the way they shot him staring at people from far away was very effective and creepy.

Overall, I was very pleased with this film because I treated it like a low budget slasher flick, I didn't watch any of the commercials so I didn't really know what I was getting into besides the basic plot premise, and I wasn't let down. And I am so glad they take advantage of the R rating, I missed a good amount of gore being sprinkled throughout Hollywood horror. I would say don't expect anything game changing, this is simply a unique spin on a by-th- numbers killer kid thriller.

I am a huge fan of the first film. In a wave of cashgrab horror movies that spill out every year the first film felt like a lot of care was put into it. The characters were likable, the suspense scenes were excellent, and the comedy aspect didn't sour the movie. Moving on to the sequel though, audiences can expect a much more comedic tone than the first with the who-dun-it aspect being thrown to the backseat and the character's relationships being put in the forefront. That doesn't necessarily make the movie boring or without suspense. With it's sequel, our protagonist Tree finds herself in another dimension where not only she is targeted but her friends as well, and if she wants to get out of the loop again she must figure out a way to survive the day along with her friends or they will be gone forever. This change in plot causes a lot of suicide in Tree's limitless lives, more so than an actual killer getting the job done. This might sour some viewers that are expecting another campy slasher that the first film executed well for a PG-13 film, but personally, I saw it as a huge character arc that Tree is now capable of handling the killer by herself, but uses her loop as an advantage to save others from being dead forever. It was impressive to see even minor characters return for this film just for the sake of skipping plotholes since the day resets to the day we are familiar with in part 1 towards the second act. Without spoilers, just to name a few returning minor characters there are scenes with the asian sorority sister, the doctor Tree was having an affair with along with is wife, and even Tim, the boy interested in Tree that has a secret revealed in part 1 that I won't spoil if you haven't seen. Which brings me to another point, I strongly suggest renting the first if you haven't seen it, and would also recommend for a rewatch just to recap everything. The movie does a fine job of doing that in a small scene, but when the day resets in THIS movie, some things are different. And you might not catch them if you don't remember the movie that well! I thought they were fun, dedicated twists that kept loyal fans of the movie intrigued. And with this amount of detail put into the sequel, I can safely say the movie was handled with just as much care as the first. The makers of this movie, including Director Christopher Landon, clearly have these characters and this world stored in a place in their heart. The secondary characters like bitchy Danielle, Nerdy friend Ryan, and even new characters that are crucial to Tree's storyline, all are handled perfectly with it's script and development from the first that make it a somewhat nice reunion to see them again, like a good season 2 of any show. And this goes without saying that Jessica Rothe AKA Tree is brilliant here. Jessica carries Tree's character and the rest of this movie on her back with her level of emotion and comedic timing. There are quite a few heart tugging scenes that would definitely fall flat if it wasn't for Jessica Rothe displaying such raw emotion for a campy Rom Com Horror. Having said that, Happy Death Day 2U is short on scares, but that's not to say there aren't suspenseful scenes, because there are (the hospital chase scene with Tree and Lori for instance is one of the films best scenes) but if you walk in expecting a thriller/horror comedy, you will be disappointed to see that the movie plays out like a Sci-Fi comedy, masked as a horror film. Which, is why I have to give it 8 stars instead of 10. I think the movie would have benefitted if it had left science out of the franchise all together. Because of the scientific aspect, the film asks the audience to believe certain things that just make things too far fetched to handle. And once the film unravels as a sort of Back To The Future knockoff rather than a Groundhog Day one, this shoves the potentially iconic babymask killer to the back for Tree and her multi-dimension subplot to fully take over. But, overall, having these Back to the Future comparisons doesn't hurt the film. This movie did what any good sequel should, and that's to tell an original story without jumping the shark, and I think the film managed to make use of it's 1 Hr and 40 min run time perfectly, because not once was I bored. In fact, I had a blast seeing it. But I might be biased because some people in fact, did not like the original at all where as I helmed it as a favorite of that year. So with that I say, if you didn't like the first Happy Death Day, Happy Death Day 2U won't leave you feeling happy.