From Within (2008)

Being a devout Horror fan as well as an easy grader, I usually look for explanations regarding my own personal taste whenever I don't enjoy a Horror film. In From Within's case, I'm not sure if I've seen too many Horror films, or too few... I just know I didn't enjoy it.Th idea for the screenplay is nice and original and the acting is rather decent, but that's about it... the build up is confused and mixed up, the exposition is in chaos and the script is at some points unbearable (not the dialogues as much as the behaviour of the characters...) This is all just my personal opinion of-course, but I felt like such a well thought of idea could have really been carried out in a much much better way.The ending did have some nice twists to it, but again, everything is confused and lacks basic order, therefore preventing the audience from being able to follow the events and really get into the film's story and experience. Then again, it may have been just me.All in all, I can't objectively say that my criticism is accurate, as it's just my opinion. So I can't really recommend that you watch this film, nor that you avoid it... sorry :)

I was expecting a mediocre film when I starting watching this movie because of the lack of actors I recognized plus watching it on cable (IFC), but I was pleasantly surprised on how creepy and well done it was.Don't get me wrong, it wasn't nearly as good as The Ring, but still made me more than a little freaked out at several points.You do need to pay close attention to the film to understand it - especially the end. The plot was decent and the story flowed pretty well.I would recommend this horror flick to scary movie fans. I would say there was a noticeable lack of gore, but not in a bad way. If you are wanting a slasher flick, this is not the movie for you.

After the witness of a suicide starts off a chain of similar cursed deaths in town, a young woman tries to keep her hyper-religious boyfriend from going after the supposed start of the curse long enough to stop it before more deaths occur.This here was a rather troubling and pretty flawed effort at times, though it does have a couple pretty interesting parts. The film is on when it's dealing with the curse and the graphic deaths that result, and beyond just the surface shocks and entertainment these are surprisingly deeper than expected. Spread throughout by the appearance of ghostly doppelgangers that mark the deaths as suicides, there's much more to this aspect of the film beyond the inherently creepy and thrilling scenes they are just on-the-surface, and altogether these provide the film with a lot of good marks. Unfortunately, there's still a lot wrong here and it's all centered around the backwoods inhabitants and the heavy presence of religion in their lives. Far too often this denigrates into a religious rant that never explains anything other than their backwards and irrational thinking damaging whatever this could've done with the material, and by unleashing a twist late in the film that makes for the whole affair mirroring a similar fate doled out years earlier for the same reason makes this whole part challenging and really tough to get by, making it so severe at times that it drags the rest of the film down considerably. It's still watchable, but not as it could've been.Rated R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence.

Alright, well I didn't really think this movie would fit into the "After Dark Horrorfest" genre, but apparently it did.This movie was interesting, and yet it was sort of dull. Confused? Well I will try to lay it on the line. The interesting part was the who religious fanaticism going on through the movie, that they showed just how crazed some people can become and to what extends some people are willing to go. That is what I found interesting in the movie.And the dull part? Well, basically the entire movie was just one long smear about nothing much in particular. There was very little happening throughout the movie. And what did happen wasn't scary at all, it was just a bit out there. And that was a major disappointment to this movie.Now, I am not saying that this is a crappy movie, it does have its moments and there is a constant sense of dread laying just beneath the surface, but this dread never gets a real chance to shine through.The movie is psychological, and that works very well in its favor, and the scenes that do draw on the supernatural, does work nicely as well. The whole part about being killed by yourself, and no one else but you can see what is going on, is kind of freaky, and that was the good part about the movie."From Within" took a sweet long time to tell very little, and that made the movie drag on forever and ever. There wasn't enough sparks and magic to make this movie all that interesting. Sure, the movie had potential and they were on to something with the story, plots and the twists in the movie, but it just didn't catch the bigger picture.The cast in "From Within" was good, and I think they all portrayed their characters very well and in believable manners. So there is nothing to complain about here. The leading roles were portrayed well, and the supporting roles were the same.The effects were good throughout the movie. They didn't revel in one grand CGI eye-fest after another, but rather made use of subtle effects and scary environments and small details. That is one of the cooler things in movie-making.The ending was nice, although not a surprise ending. But it worked well enough.I am rating this movie a 4, because of the story took forever to get you almost nowhere. But still, there were elements that managed to keep my interest throughout the movie. Now, if you are looking for a movie to scare the crap out of you, this is not the movie to pick. However, if you want a psychological movie with some underlying supernatural elements, this might be right up your alley. But be prepared for a very long storytelling...