Visions (2015)

Pregnant Eveleigh Maddox (a fine and affecting performance by Isla Fisher) moves with her husband David (a solid and credible portrayal by Anson Mount) to a vineyard to start a new life in the wake of a traumatic automobile accident. However, Eveleigh finds out that said vineyard has a dark past that puts both her and her baby in danger. Director Kevin Greubert relates the engrossing premise at a gradual pace, makes nice use of the beautiful bucolic setting, grounds the premise in a believable everyday reality, and ably crafts a spooky and unsettling enigmatic atmosphere. Fisher and Mount make for an attractive and appealing couple; they receive sturdy support from Gillian Jacobs as the perky Sadie, Joanna Cassidy as the helpful Helena, Eve Longoria as loyal gal pal Eileen, and Jim Parsons as the concerned Dr. Matheson. Lucas Sussman's clever script delivers a real doozy of a surprise twist at the end. Both Anton Sanko's shivery score and Michael Fimognari's polished widescreen cinematography are up to par. Well worth a watch.

I liked the film - the build up was good and the twist was interesting. However, one thing I cannot stand is where someone is in a fight with someone else and a third person just stands there, mouth open, doing absolutely nothing. This is what happens when David has the fight in the kitchen and his wife just stands there and does nothing to help him - especially when she already knows what will happen from her previous visions. People like this deserve to die because they are not worthy of the gene pool.If that hadn't happened (and it need not have done - she could have been detained by fighting off the guy with the rifle) I would have given the film 9/10.

A man and his wife move into a new house. She's a pregnant fashion designer who sees strange things. He's a vintner who doesn't believe her. Now follows an example how the dialogues in this movie go down: "I'm not crazy" - "I know"; " You don't believe me" - "Yes, I do". "Did you saw this?" - "No"; "I'm not crazy" - "I know". Groundbreaking. If it would contain a little bit of humor then one could've thought that this is a spoof on generic horror movies. But it doesn't and it isn't. The producers are dead serious about their horror-business. The movie is so bland that it even manages to mess up the - usually fail-safe - art of the jump scare, the last and mostly only resource of horror in movies like this. Then there are the actors mostly known for their roles in sitcoms, with little screen time that are completely out of place and randomly appear during the movie to ensure that the viewer knows he's in a movie and that under no circumstances things like an atmosphere can come up (eg. Jim Parson as Doctor, what the f*ck). Not to mention that the actual main characters are unlikable as f*ck. It says a lot when the only person you care about in a movie is an unborn baby. The only good thing about this piece of art is the "plot twist" which is ironically completely ripped-off from another movie. Easily the worst horror movie I've seen in the past years.

Just imagine the following situation. A young couple, Eveleigh (Isla Fisher) and David (Anson Mouth), decides to move and run a rural vineyard (something they've always dreamed of). In this way they can escape from hectic life after a tragic car accident Eveleigh was involved in. Also this vineyard has a past, Eveleigh is pregnant and slowly she starts to have strange, disturbing visions. And as icing on the cake there's also this famous wine critic Helena (Joanna Cassidy) who's is caught red-handed by Eveleigh while standing in the bedroom in a sort of trance and cranking out some weird sounding spells. My first thought was that I'd see the umpteenth variant of "Rosemary's Baby". Immediately all relatives and bystanders were suspicious. Even her husband David could be part of a plot to start some kind of satanic rite, with his wife as a helpless victim. Believe me, I was so wrong about that. The final denouement was the complete opposite of what I expected. Maybe there is a glimmer of originality. The run-up to this denouement surely isn't quite original. The entire range of phenomena that occur in films with a possessed house are used here. So you can expect some appearing and disappearing objects, self-moving objects, exploding bottles and bloody hand-prints. Of course those paranormal events go up in smoke after Eveleigh frantically tells her story, after which everybody concluded that her hormone levels are playing tricks on her. David tries to convince her to take antidepressants back again. Isla Fisher has her hands full with looking around anxiously and hysterical screaming the whole movie. And of course again there's no one who believes her. Obviously not a single actor or actress was familiar to me. Not difficult, I am a complete ignoramus when it comes to television series. The only one I knew was Isla "Now you see me" Fisher and Joanna Cassidy. The performances weren't so pitifully poor, but it wasn't impressive either. Actually, it was all a bit average and one-dimensional. Strange but true, the real estate agent was brilliant with his sarcastic tone and comments after browsing through the history of the vineyard, looking for dramatic incidents that could have happened in the past. Don't let yourself be dazzled by the movie poster, because it looks spookier than the film itself. I wouldn't exactly describe "Visions" as horror. It's more a paranormal thriller that could be used as an episode of the "X-files". The scarce jump scares aren't very original and are just eerie because they've used those loud sound effects. For me "Visions" is just a mediocre movie. Not bad and not good. Another final product that builds on known elements. A dime a dozen so to speak.