Residue (2017)

I respect a movie like this, that's honest well acted. low budget but still manages to deliver an awesome world build, far more than a marvel movie these days. This is a solid and smart psychological horror flick. The acting is def good across the board for the kind of movie it is. Go in with an open mind looking to be told a good story and don't expect The Godfather, and you'll surely enjoy it. You know what kind of move this is when you watch it.

I can honestly say I'm perplexed about the reviews panning this film. I can see how it's not for everyone, but you can't deny the outstanding acting, good script, and creative direction. It's not easy to pull off something this satisfying on a low budget! For me, it hit a lot of sweet spots: Detective noir/horror is one of my favorite genre mashups, the characters were strong but quirky, there was humor that arose from the established characters and situations (not from absurdity or just to be "funny", for the most part), and the story was mysterious without being too perplexing. Of course it had some flaws, so there will be mild SPOILERS here... First, they could have saved some of their limited budget by not placing the story in the near future. There was absolutely no reason for the heads-up displays on some of the smart-phones. I'm sure that wasn't cheap to do, and it added literally nothing to the story. If anything it detracted, since it never went anywhere.Second, probably the biggest flaw, is that the interpersonal beat that was the linchpin of the entire ending was not explained well enough before we got there. There were hints that it was some sort of big deal, but not enough IMO. A few lines of clarification beforehand would have helped - not giving everything away but at least giving us SOMETHING that wasn't totally opaque. And finally, there were some lines of dialog that were really hard to hear because of sound effects on the voice. They may have been able to hear it fine in the studio, but on a TV they were lost. Overall, however, I really loved this one! The acting, especially, was head and shoulders above what I'd expect in this sort of film, even down to the smaller characters. The lead actor James Clayton, as the P.I./estranged father, was particularly excellent. And the clever story told us just enough without getting into the tall weeds of over-explanation. All of that was so good that I can easily forgive a few cheesy effects - it's not their fault it was low-budget and I'm not above using my willing suspension of disbelief for a story I like. I for one am going to keep my eye out for a sequel!

This movie popped into my suggestions from Netflix and like most of them I scrolled past it 100 times. On scroll 101 I decided to read the description and it sounded interesting so I told myself I'd give it 10 minutes. I'm hard to please when it comes to movies but this thing checks almost all the boxes. It's an almost perfect blend of mystery, scares, comedy, emotion, and weirdness. I loved everything about it and can't recommend it highly enough. This crew is writing, directing, producing, and acting in their own stuff and Residue should be an inspiration to all filmmakers and anyone thinking they might want to make a movie. Can't wait to see the rest of their films.

I can't believe how bad this is. And I thought I had seen all the super bad movies in the horror realm. I saw two reviews that raved about it, but failed to note that both had never reviewed a film before. Must have been friends of the director because this is one of the worst movies I've ever seen.It was done like an old Film Noir, with the detective's narration, but it just didn't work. I don't usually bother to review something unless I think I should save someone else the 82 minutes I wasted.First off, it's not even slightly scary. Secondly, no one in this can act. It does have one known actor though. Some might recognize the cigarette smoking man from the X-files series. His role was not really defined very well. And somehow he sewed it all together in the end.None of the script really made any sense at all. The writer needs to learn basic dialogue and character development. No one had any appeal. I was hoping whatever the evil was would finish them off, but never did figure out what the evil thing was. Some kind of slimy insect with a claw? The miracle was that I stayed through to the end to see if it got better, but it never did.I know how it got published though. It had the politically correct lesbian daughter and nosy mixed race old couple next door. I guess that's all it takes to make a movie these days. Sadly, a good script and plot are not necessary in this day and age.