Malevolent

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Malevolent, which just premiered on Netflix, is about a phony ghost-hunting crew in the '80s who encounter a real haunted house. I'm seeing a lot of negative reviews for this. Thought it wasn't half bad myself. Sure, it doesn't really do anything new and the story and direction is average, emphasis on AVERAGE. This is a competent film, and I was entertained enough for the running time. The cast is game and sells this. Also, there are a couple of interesting song choices that did catch me by surprise and added to the creepiness.

This was definitely a "first acting gig" for the folks in this movie, but I was mostly willing to forgive that if the movie ended up being interesting. And it was up until the end when it suddenly had the characters acting nonsensically and sometimes just plain stupid for the sake of a standard horror movie ending. In the end, it was mostly just bland.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Yikes. Bad acting, nonsensical, often comically absurd plot. Stay far away.

Phony film with Phony Ghostbusters: Angela and Jackson, the story of two sibling scammers running a "fake" paranormal removal business from supposedly haunted houses. Their mother possessed the gift of seeing supernatural beings, before scratching her own eyes out. The sibling duo would never think that this power would be passed down to them, until Angela starts seeing visions that keep her up at night. The team of "ghost hunters" begins their normal process at an old foster home or orphanage (thanks IMDB for that piece of knowledge, the movie failed to mention this or if it did we both missed this piece altogether), said to be haunted by young girls who were tortured and had their mouths sewn shut. Angela starts to see these creepy girls. Queue the creepy twins from the Shining. The cinematography was decent, but the filmed lacked a stable plotline. Did this crazy orphanage lady really torture and kill children over the years because they wouldn't stop screaming? Was that before or after the torture? There were more questions than answers and some obvious parts of the story that were missing. The only redeeming factor that this film held was that it actually made us flinch a few times. The torture scenes were graphic and made our lips quiver. Best Seamstress: Old Lady Susie - sewing mouths of humans since the beginning of time (by the looks of those wrinkles) Best Smile: No one - can you even smile with your mouth sewn shut? Most drawn out near death - Elliot, man you lasted way longer than expected, kudos. Overall grade: D+

Wow. This movie was brutal! How did nobody involved in the production of this film not have the sense (or the talent) to intervene and tweak this film to make it just a little less terrible!?