User Reviews

Blumhouse straight to digital release is a cozy one, perfect for an cold autumn evening. It had one of the aspects that make some of the best horror, in my opinion. Isolation...(I.E. Alien, Predator, The Thing) Better than just a cabin in the woods. This story unfolds on a deserted island. You can run, but in circles.

I appreciate never getting a full daylight view of the monster. My imagination fills in the blanks just fine thank you.

Anybody else wondering what happened to Zack, especially after Lucas's cryptic sentence "you are starting to sound like Zach". What happened to Zack?!- all the blood in the raft and on the knife. You have this side story with no conclusion. I want closure people!

Starts out intriguing but consistently goes downhill.

Just a woman on an island, no info presented regarding who she is or how she got there but she seems quite calm & rational most of the time, despite half the things she does making no sense while the rest is rather resourceful. Perfectly fine to have one character and no dialogue IF there is a story being told visually, but this movie sits still for long moments with nothing happening. The scenes of intended tension don't work because it keeps cutting back to the character without giving any indication what she's looking at.

When something does happen with the creature it's almost always at night, because of course this is supposedly a horror movie but hey guess what if it's too dark the audience is basically watching a black screen. There's even a scene later when two other people show up on a raft and one of them says something about feeling safe because it's been dark out for a few hours and they haven't seen anything...right because IT'S DARK OUT. Terrible cinematography, stupid writing.

Oh yes the awful awful dialogue...so for half the movie it's just one character, and rather than have her talk to herself or sporting equipment she says nothing, which as stated would be fine if there were more to be seen, but once the other two show up and conversation can occur they still don't say anything of value. They just keep repeating the same meaningless phrases -- we need to leave, no we should stay -- without progressing the story or revealing character, which are the only two things any dialogue should ever do. Also now that there are people for her to speak to she sounds panicked & crazy, even though much of her actions to this point have been thoughtful & controlled...great character work there.

Actor playing the apparent boyfriend gives a terrible performance of a poorly written character. Nothing he says or does means anything or carries a hint of emotional weight. There are suggestions in the movie about what his off-camera actions may have been, but it doesn't add up to anything. It has no effect. Same thing with their characters showing up on the island; it has no effect. They literally arrive out of nowhere in the middle, do nothing, and die. What's the point? Also when they get there, the main character spends all this screen time trying to explain to them everything we've already witnessed, all her experiences on the island to that point...yeah that's great storytelling, just repeat everything we already know. Don't bother utilizing their arrival to raise the stakes, reveal further information, or introduce natural conflict -- just have them say they can't believe her because she's always making up stuff, that's a perfectly cinematic way to show backstory, put in a new character to tell us things, don't show it, that's too difficult.

And a bunch of other little things: trying to open a coconut nowhere near the guy whose life she intends to save with it and spilling all its milk the second she picks it up; trying to sneak the raft back into the water in plain clear view of the people she's ditching who are sitting on the beach in the sun like they're on vacation and not stranded on a tiny undeveloped island in the middle of the ocean after spending SEVERAL DAYS ON A RAFT; trying to ditch them in the first place; trying to leave the island on an open suitcase that was closed and floating when she found it; that suitcase somehow being hers without this made clear until later without any real reason for the delayed reveal or maybe the director thought it WAS clear even though lots of things in this movie are poorly shot and it isn't at all clear what's happening way too often; the creature attacks her without deadly force and disappears without reason several times because plot armor; she never once seems to consider trying to kill this thing until very very late; her plan to kill discount aquaman who's twice her size and could slice her in half with one good claw-swipe is to sharpen lots of little sticks and leave them poking out of the sand all over the place so she can run around and keep stabbing mutant Percy Jackson with a new sharp stick until fishboy eventually bleeds out and keels over...and it works.

Low-budget single-location horror is a good thing when the writing is smart...which means the characters and their actions are believable, compelling, and entertaining. So many movies seem to be put together with a focus on the creation of particular moments, but not enough work is done for those moments to feel connected, compelling, dramatic, or natural. Sure it can be scary for a mysterious sea creature to stalk a shipwrecked survivor, but not when the specifics of the situation don't play.

And not if it's too dark to see anything.

I did not hate this movie. I rented on demand as I was bored and looking for something to watch, just the kill a little time, and I ended up watching it again.

Our protagonist, Jenn, who is very nicely portrayed by Kiersey Clemons, manages to keep her wits about her, despite finding herself in dire straits. She washes ashore a tropical island with a badly injured friend, Ben. He dies fairly quickly, leaving Jenn on her own. After her friend dies, Jenn scouts the island, looking for whatever resources that she can find. While searching, she finds an old Igloo cooler and a canvas bag, ostensibly left behind by previous inhabitants. Some of the items are useful, and some aren't. She makes the best use of what she is able to salvage.

Shortly thereafter, while combing the beach, she finds the mutilated remains of a small shark on shore. This gives us our first inkling as to the threat that she will see n be facing.

Jenn comes to discover that some sort of creature comes ashore seeking prey every night. She manages to avoid it, and gets the opportunity to bury the friend that washed ashore with her. Later, she is combing the beach again, and finds that something has stolen her dead friend's body, which understandably freaks Jenn out.

I will spare some details here, in the event that you decide to watch this movie. Suffice it to say that Jenn proves herself to be crafty, resourceful, and rather gutsy. She does not shy away from doing what needs to be done in order to survive. Along the way, she manages to avoid the usual stupid decisions and pratfalls that most horror movies are rife with.

I will spoil the ending, mostly because Jenn does something that most characters in these movies almost never do; she makes damned sure that the monster is dead. She doesn't just hurt it, drop her weapon and flee. Once the creature finally succumbs, she keeps cutting and tearing at it until she is absolutely positive that it is dead. There are no cliched jump scares, where the monster has one last surge of life. When Jenn kills 'em, they stay dead.

Despite the spoilers, I left a lot out of this review. Even knowing the outcome, it would be worth your while to give "Sweetheart" a chance.

I'm no fancy critic or crazy film snob, but movies like this that seem to be just empty shells of productions being mindlessly rolled out by Netflix what seems like every week truly ruin my hopes for a fresh, good film.

And it's so sad. Because this movie starts out great. The remote island, the lack of background information, the little dialogue - they all make for such a suspenseful and "what on earth is going on here?" feeling in the best way. The lead actress is also awesome. She conveys her emotions really well. A lot of the comments here praise her for doing exactly what a regular person would do in real life, and this is true, she follows what the audience is thinking they would do - she's smart and capable, which as a black woman lead is fantastic. The monster is also really intriguing at first too. Not being able to see it is a classic tactic, but it works. I was also liking the fact that once the other two characters arrived on the island, that something important about their past was insinuated, but never fully revealed, leaving the audience to both infer and wonder about how that's impacted their actions now.

But this mystery and intrigue is ruined about halfway through. This movie turns into a corny, dragged on goose chase with an alien creature hunting down a female lead - original, right? It seems as though the last 20 minutes of this movie were suddenly rushed into a cringeworthy, anti-climatic conclusion where none of the suspense or wit from the beginning carry over. Now that we've seen that the monster is a ridiculous toy-looking shark-man, I'd be shocked if anyone found themselves remotely scared or curious anymore (not to mention the terrible special effects used that made it even less believable, if that's even possible). With the killing of the other two characters, we now have no way of really understanding more about the interesting story that was being built up about their past before the predictable, action-filled second half. Revealing the monster and turning the journey into a cliché sci-fi story that adds nothing new to the genre is a huge let-down, and ruined the chance to add something fresh to the "distressed female in a strange place vs mysterious predator" idea. I was left bored and unfulfilled, and ready to easily forget this story.

Frankly, I feel insulted that directors like this and big names like Netflix think that their entire audience will believe this is a good movie just because it looks well-done (at least in the first half), and because it touches on some "woke" themes. And I no longer trust Rotten Tomatoes for scoring movies like this so highly - it's clear that these opinions are not entirely original and authentic anymore. It's a shame because Sweetheart had so much potential, especially because it made me begin to believe in some true, deeper meaning about trust, credibility and leadership for a minority lead. Unfortunately, it became a big missed opportunity to do something great and instead another wannabe Alien/Castaway and Netflix flop.

My major issue with this movie comes from a few basic things that don't make sense. You're stranded on a deserted island and you don't write S. O. S. In the sand. You find food, make shelter but you don't write S. O. S.? People in real life have been rescued by writing S. O. S. In the sand.

And you have a flare gun but it's not ready to shoot at all times. Also, everyone should know by now that if someone has an object embedded in them you don't pull it out. I'm not a survival expert and I know that it's basic first aid. These kinds of errors are so unbelievable that it puts me off the whole movie. I have a real problem with this type of writing because the characters are not believable. It's especially important when you're dealing with something Sci-fi that the rest of the movie is so realistic you get caught up in it. If I don't believe the human characters how am I supposed to believe your monster?

I was pleasantly surprised by this one here. I'm not usually a fan of monster movies but this one did it right.

The lead actress was really good. She held the movie down all by herself. Not to mention she wasn't bad on eyes. Really beautiful woman.

Good Script. Great visuals. I really like how they held back on showing the monster till closer to the end. And that black hole in the ocean... Yikes!!

Glad blumhouse takes chances on these kinds of films. Congrats to all the cast and crew. Thank you for making an entertaining film.

I LOVE monster movies, and something that makes me so sad is that we have VERY, VERY few good ones very often that come out, and even less GREAT ones. "The Thing" (NOT the new CGI infected version) will always be king imo. And typically they're now always low budget trash ...in recent years we have gotten, "The Void, The Mist, The Ritual", and a few others, but not many!!!

So when one comes along that is decent, I'm always excited! I didn't know what to expect, but they did well! My two favorite film themes, MONSTERS and TRAPPED IN A LOCATION/ISOLATION!

Also, the monster is (from what I could tell) basically ALL practical effects!!! There is one scene in particular that I'll always remember among great monster scenes, when she fires the flare and the monster is shown way out in the water! BRILLIANT!!! As well as the eyes in the photo that you aren't really sure if it's eyes, or the mind playing tricks. It's chilling, scary, and no need for JUMP SCARE! The lead actress, I've never seen her before but I really liked her a lot. I will say that the final act, as with almost every monster film was the weakest part. I don't know if this is because we now see too much of it, or if because it's the same old "it or me, gotta right it" stuff.

I really thought the look of it was pretty good, and I loved how it would keep up with her running by jumping into the water, this film was very original, while feeling familiar as well.

As I mentioned the final act felt a bit weak, as most of this type of film suffers from, (so I won't knock it much...) this could also be in part due to the addition of the incredibly unlikeable other two people that wash ashore. I don't think they added anything other than a few monster kills to the film.

I'll just say this, if YOU are a horror fan, more specifically a MONSTER movie fan, and The Thing/The Howling/ Deep Rising, and others are YOUR thing? Check this out, you'll be very pleased!!!

We always complain that we don't get enough of these original horror films, so when we do like now? SUPPORT IT!!! Go rent it.

What's in that black hole? Why not show us?

Did she make it off the island? How?

Did a plane come?

Were there more than one creature?

Who buried the bodies?

How did her friends survive on that raft for so long if that thing could pluck them out so easily?

Why were her friends so stupid?

What happened on the raft with the blood? The knife?

WAS THIS MOVIE EVEN FINISHED? OR WAS IT RUSHED?

Sweetheart is by far the most underrated horror film of the year. It has an interesting premise and has one of the best creature in a while in horror movies.

PROS.

1. Beautiful cinematography 2. Tense Atmosphere 3. Interesting premise 4. Brilliant acting by Kiersey Clemons 5. Direction

CONS.

1. Even though it's short in runtime, it's still feels a bit long due to its dragged 2nd act. 2. A lackluster finale 3. There was huge potential in the premise and it wasn't utilised properly.

Overall, a very intersting movie and a must watch for horror movie fanatics. I think there should be another movie where the origin of creature should be explained. Dunno, would be an interesting idea for a sequel.

Night scenes are too dark to see anything at all. A hollow log doesn't break when the monster beats on it as hard as it can, but it splits easily as a person crawls out of it. Character looks at two palm trees - there's a scene cut - character is lying in a hammock stretched twenty feet in the air between the two palm trees. How? Earlier scene - character mashes minnows and throws them in the water, quickly attracting a small shark. Later scene - character has a huge gash in leg, in one scene, then the wound is never shown again and she goes swimming almost immediately after without fear of sharks. Says she has enough food for three people for weeks, but the tiny bit of food she packs in that little chest would last one person one day. And then, when you finally see a clear shot of the 'monster'- oh, my. Man in a cheap rubber suit with the head of a toy dinosaur. ...and goat hooves? An amphibious creature with man legs and goat hooves? The creature comes out of the sea, but you never try to go inland? I'm not even sure this was actually an island - we never saw more than one beach. Everyone just assumes it's an island. Ends without full resolution. Terrible from beginning to end.

I liked it. Especially the first half of the movie, where we very gradually get more and more revealed of the monster worked great for me, the tension is effectively built-up and together with main character Jenn (Kiersey Clemons) we experience some pretty scary moments. As always in monster movies it's a bit of a risk to at last bring the monster in full sight and here it's not different, it does detract some of it's menacing effect.

I also liked the way in which we seem to be planted right in the middle of the story: what exactly happened to make Jenn wash ashore on this island stays for the biggest part in the dark and even when two of her friends later-on also wash ashore in a dinghy it's not really cleared-up. It adds to the creepy atmosphere, as does the few innuendo's concerning bloodstains in the dinghy and the questionable parts that these two friends seem to have had in that. To me it didn't really get any clearer, but maybe I missed or didn't understand an intended clarification in the end. Clemons by the way does a great job, carrying the movie for the biggest part on her own.

Like many reviewers here I had some doubts as to the logic of things. Especially the apparent but totally unfounded assumption that the creature was solitary kept amazing me, but lucky for Jenn the writers assumed the same. And Jenn's ability to survive the many attacks of the creature was just as amazing.

Anyway, a good well-acted and genuinely scary movie.

This movie is really a very very simple movie. Try to over-think it, and you may get pissed off in the end. Like, I kept thinking why is her skin so clean after all the shit that happened? Like, why the monster had to come out to land to hunt, when there's plenty of food in the ocean. Like, why is it interested in dead meat while still chase after living beings.

By the time I realized it was such a waste of time to bother, the monster got murdered and movie ends.

There is only ONE big complain coming from me. And that is, they over-emphasized on Lucas; his little talk to Jenn while she was tied up and also hinting that he may be the one who killed Zack with the bloody swiss knife. It's absolutely unnecessary and there wasn't any further development in the remaining of the show. More doesn't necessarily means better. Sometimes LEE is better. It makes the movie weaker and amateurish.

Kiersey Clemons washes up on a deserted island. Her companion dies shortly afterward. She discovers there was a family there before her and later a monster that comes out of a black hole abyss on the ocean floor with the sole purpose to eat folks on the island. It is a story of survival.

Good film with a build-up. We do get to see the creature, but never clearly.

Guide: No sex or nudity. I didn't catch the swearing.