We Are Still Here (2015)

Minutes 10 - 14: Kinda mundane. Husband and wife take a road trip to move into their new home, hear some things go "bump" in the night, blah... After that the plot develops quickly, new characters come into play and the story line moves at a decent clip. Contrary to the reports of other reviews, I found the acting to be better than adequate for a "B" movie. Solid "B" horror. Acting: Better than many "B" movies. Special Effects: Better than many "B" movies. IMHO

31 Days of Spookoween: DAY EIGHTFilm #8: We Are Still Here (2015)Review: "We Are Still Here" is one of those modern indie horror flicks that seem to be helping resurrect the genre. It is jam packed with obvious flaws and occasionally falls into the easy entrapment of cliché, but it makes up for these problems by packing a real punch in its climax and by retaining a sense of mystery and intrigue throughout. The atmosphere and silence of the film is golden, some sequences are brilliantly minimalist, and the cinematography is absolutely stunning! The special effects range in quality, but most of the gore towards the end is really fun and is pulled off very well, while the more tragic and horrific side of the film is never overshadowed by the possible silliness these effects could infiltrate into the film. The performances are mostly sort of mediocre, while some of them are quite good and others are pretty bad, but it doesn't harm the film all too much. Parts of it are so slow it becomes boring, but by the end I was grateful for this because it makes the wild finale all the more exciting! The concept, at first, feels very cliché, but as the film continues and plenty more twists and turns are established, it becomes a rather clever melding of various genre tropes that successfully come together to create a haunting and creepy premise in its own right. While not a very scary movie overall, there are certainly moments of tensity, which lead towards a final feeling of "true" horror. It's not really a masterpiece, but it is clear that the filmmakers behind this one have the potential to make a masterpiece sometime in the near future.

I watched this movie last night, with my husband and pup snoring next to me, and had high hopes of being creeped out beyond belief while being the only person awake in the house. And at first, this movie succeeded. It has a creeping, atmospheric beginning — really highlighting the desolation of New England in the winter — and some truly good jump scares along with just a general sense of tension, though you aren't sure why. More than once I said "NO THANKS" out loud as some shadowy figure lurked behind Anne (Barbara Crampton). Her loss seemed palpable initially and I thought it set the movie up for some deep emotion amidst some truly creepy things happening, particularly with her obvious desperation for their son, Bobby, to still be with them.The movie was set in the 70's which, in my opinion, they made a little too obvious at times. It wasn't really necessary for any part of the plot, but it was a small but welcome difference. I also appreciated that the main characters were older, grieving parents moving into a new home to get away from the pain surrounding their son's accident and subsequent death rather than a picture-perfect couple in their 30's with two kids and a dog. But that's about where it ended for me.Pretty soon the stiff and sometimes over-the-top cheesy acting of the main characters really chipped away at the darkness it held at the beginning. I know that may have been intentional on the director's part to play some kind of homage to some classic 70's horror, but damn. Before long you're informed that the house has a gruesome history and, surprise, the couple is not deterred and somehow only mildly weirded out by their neighbor, in no unclear terms, telling them to GET OUT. They invite their friends, May and Jacob — who are known for being spiritual — to feel the house out, but it's almost as if Anne only wants to hear that Bobby, their deceased son, is the presence she feels, and anything else she dismisses as though May is blabbering nonsense.They did a fairly good job at showing just enough of the spirits at first to freak you out without going over the top, but that ends as well, and at some point they're just straight up walking through the house (though I did appreciate their charred, ashy appearance), which kind of takes away any sense of mystery. Jacob, played by Larry Fessenden, even manages to botch a possession scene — which for me almost ALWAYS sends chills up my spine — with his lack of any subtlety. This movie that started off very minimally spooky descends quickly into what I thought was a very stereotypical and boring plot with not much explanation for much of it until the ending credits rolled and some unnecessary gore (the only death scene I appreciated was Anne killing the bartender with a fistful of knives).I'll give a plus to the very last line in the movie (the one thing I won't spoil for you), since I thought it was a fairly awesome way to end it. But, ultimately, this movie just felt like a huge reach to me.

I F*** hated it, it was terrible and not in a good way. I started to see it and first 10-15 minutes and I thought OK it's somewhat boring but let's give it a chance, it has many good reviews and everything, so I gave it a shot and turned out to be a complete disaster.let's begin with the history which was none(I mean there's no explanation, although some other movies pull it off quite well )and the development of the same(poor) and justification for the action of some characters. Also ..what's up with the acting? gosh they were so bad.There are people who say it's a good 70s/80s kind of film but NO way I've seen quite a few(many) films from that time and they were great. So... I feel I lost my time watching this..