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Reviews
Zhou (2022)
Shock is No Substitute For Horror
This movie is front loaded with things that are supposed to scare you: haunted handheld footage, scenes shot at night, scary little girl and shots of people dying in terrible ways.
It feels like watching a mashup of Noroi, Paranormal Activity and The Ring that throws everything it can at you to spook you. It's so on the nose, the lack of subtlety is hilarious at times. Much of the movie is like walking through a haunted house for Halloween with numerous cheap jump scares. Its even interactive with the audience by having them chant a wicked prayer along with the main character. This plays into a meta narrative of the movie but it falls flat because the movie is just not realistic enough for that. There are far too many times you wonder who's holding the camera and why they continue to film.
I will give the crew credit for trying to act when it comes to the mother-daughter relationship but it doesn't hold up the movie. The sets are very well designed as well.
There's a story to be told and I can see where they wanted the terror to follow the viewers home, but it's far too fantastical to have an effect in the real world. When it comes to weaving the backstory of ancient rituals and gods, it does well but it is implemented poorly. You are never really sure what the curse in the movie really does because it seems to do everything, from making you a zombie to making you kill yourself.
Watch this for brainless fun. Better yet, watch Noroi for a better found footage movie with a slow creeping atmosphere and a more believable method of storytelling.
Dang nan ren lian ai shi (2021)
Mostly Boring and Redundant
A movie that doesn't shy away from the everyday life in Taiwan, it tells a very longwinded love story.
It's established that our main character is debt collector with a heart of gold by showing his acts of kindness despite his line of work. It is then shown over and over again to really get you to understand he's a good guy. The stonefaced love interest and him go through the struggles of a relationship between a debt collector and a debtor for a very long time with a constant melancholic piano playing in the background.
The movie moves along like this for what feels like an eternity, with each scene repeating the same sentiment continuously until there's an ending. It doesn't feel like a conclusion but it is an ending. Overly dramatic and wandering at times, this movie is a chore to sit through. Props to Roy for trying his hardest in this.
Byeonshin (2019)
It's actually just one giant plot hole
While the actors did very well, the plot holes and illogical events just make this movie a comedy.
While the storyline is set up very well, when the main plot unfolds, everything established gets thrown out the window. The demon has no rules or limits to what It can do, things that happen get ignored by everyone and all the characters act stupid. Actors will disappear from the movie entirely cause there's nothing for them to do.
At one point it's established that the demon assumes forms to cause harm to the family, however one of the daughters gets sucked into an incinerator by an unseen force. If it can do that why even bother with the possessions? Oh right, cause the movie has to happen.
Many more inconsistencies plague the film and make it nearly unwatchable along with cliches that are just shoed in.
There's also just so much unnatural lighting that is just distracting and negates the creepy nature of the film. I'm unsure why the filmmaker didn't want his horror film to be dark.
Don't watch it, there's way better exorcism stories to put on.
The Golem (2018)
There's better out there
Well shot and well produced, but this movie really clashes with itself. There's deep drama of a loss mixed with extremely tacky horror elements. It's got scary things sitting in the dark and people popping up behind people out of nowhere, but I found the scares to be very ineffective. The main character's motivation is very shallow and weak and really is only there to have her rush to make a golem. The golem turns out to take the form a boy, so anyone expecting an interesting monster design will be disappointed.
The writing is also very weak and poorly constructed. We're to believe like, 6 men can hold a village hostage and people do dumb things. The violence in this movie gets turned up to 11 at times so it's hard to stay grounded in the reality of it when someone's head explodes cartoonishly. The acting is good enough, but everyone's performance is very one note and boring. While surrounded by adequate(and sometimes sub-adequate) human drama, this movie's plot is an excuse to have a gorefest slasher. Treat it as a b-movie to play in the background while you do something.