inlovewithbenja's reviews

I sincerely hope that, after this, the 'writers' and the 'actors' have already secured their jobs at McDonalds. That's all I have to say about this piece of trash.

It was alright, until the last two episodes. That Alex woman was unbearable to listen to. She seems like such an annoying person that it's had to even muster any sympathy for her.

Without her, the doc would have been a weakly 6/7, but had to drop a whole 3 points just because of her appearance. Okay, gurl, you're a victim, we get it, pfft, calm down.

The first episode promised some semi-interesting things. It laid the groundwork for some interesting ethics and philosophy discussions. Unfortunately, the creators simply seem to lack the depth to handle these topics adequately and, instead, proceeded to over-focus on the incessant, chaotic teenage drama that is often completely illogical. The show doesn't seem to follow a palatable pace, nor does it seem competent of committing to a story thread. Everything in it just explodes and goes out before one can blink, making it all seem utterly irrelevant in the end. Not only are the characters unlikable, their reactions to situations seem completely random and without any real, consistent internal logic. I dropped it at the episode 3.

The first 3/4 episodes were pretty decent - intriguing, promising...

Then it devolved into the same old cliché, seen-a-thousand-times, predictable drivel of a story.

Melody is extremely unlikeable and a nuisance to watch. Dan could have been interesting if he didn't go full simp for a woman he saw on tape that is also at least twenty years older than him. The 'connection' between them was so forced, plastic, and puke-inducing, it basically knocked down the entire story at least a dozen of pegs.

This could have been a fun ethereal mystery horror. It ended up resembling a bad fanfic written by a teenager by the end of it.

The first episode was great, it promised great things.

It was a steep ride downhill from there. You came here to learn something interesting about hurricanes? Let me tell you how they are racist. I know it's Netflix, but still, pathetic.

Right, because every tradition older and other than Christianity is 'demonic' and 'evil'.

This started off well but quickly spiraled down to yet another uninspired, washed out, seen-a-million-times-before church pamphlet.

Waste of time.

Meh.

Before someone accuses me of being part of the 'dumb' audience, lemme assure you I understood the metaphor of the show.

The metaphor itself, however, is not enough on its own to make a compelling watch. The craftsmanship behind it is mediocre at best. The 'hell-hounds' are borderline comical, the beatings are over the top and look like they were copy-pasted out of some teenage cartoon.

While the meta is that the phenomenon is an un-explainable occurrence, I find it hard to believe that in-universe no one: not the government, not the military, not the police, not a single individual tried to figure out what was really happening and why? Why didn't the rest of the world react? Why did no one try to fight back? Why are the good guys always so reluctant to kill even when their lives and those of their families are in danger?

Overall, interesting premise, but executed worse than poorly.

This movie was an absolute treat for a lifetime horror movie junkie. It managed to make fun of the entire genre (itself included) without coming across as snobby. The only reason I didn't give it a perfect score is because a) It's a bit 'plastic'. Amazing craftsmanship but could have been a bit more 'meaty'.

B) A good satire warrants some cynicism in return.

Otherwise, brilliant.

Eh I guess I expected more from this. Yes, it's just a torture porn but some things were like wtf. Like, at the beginning, woman walks on her bf beheaded and her reaction is like "oh!". They did try to make the Beth the smart one, but even tho she did say couple of smart things (mainly warn her friend about shady guys that approach them), she herself took quite a long time to figure Axelle out while there were obvious hints (No one is that aggressively nice naturally while just leaving you alone in the pool and then appearing our of thin air when you get chased to "save you"). It's pretty predictable most of the way (one of my main pet peeves here is the classic: cool main character that is obviously going to win because his/her friends are dumb, shallow or just weird). And lets be real, you can play it that she survived cause she is smart and "badass" but the only real reason she lives is cause she's rich. Bonus points for that Bathory reference but that indeed appears to be the peak scene of this movie imo. Also, for a "torture porn", it doesn't really have that much of torture (or maybe I'm just numb to it at this point)