Villains

It may be a film that rubs some the wrong way – those who hate Villains will hate it with a fervent passion, I fear – but for everyone else, this is quite the lovely little oddball.

Villains stumbles early on. However, due to the precise editing, excellent design work, and a cast that knock it out of the park at every turn, the film is still highly enjoyable.

In Villains, an energetic combination of black comedy and lazy thriller that is more of an attention grabber than most of what passes for disorganized, empty-headed, juvenile horror in today’s sociopathic cinema, four very good actors give it all they’ve got for nearly 90 minutes. Considering most of what I’ve suffered through this year, that passes for praise.

Berk and Olsen’s script only skims the surface of what is really going on here, and yet Villains remains a delightfully slick dip in the shallow end of the pool. You may leave wanting a longer swim, but enjoy the sick fun while it lasts.

This black comedy thriller has a good cast to spark a scenario that’s intriguing enough to hold attention, if not quite clever enough to be a knockout.

If you’re a fan of broad black comedy — the kind in which someone blasts a hole in someone else’s head, and then the next camera shot is framed by that gaping aperture — Villains may be your cup of strong tea. The dialogue by writer-directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen is less than witty, and peppered with a heavy sprinkling of dully numbing f-bombs.

Despite some committed performances, particularly from a refreshingly natural Maika Monroe, Villains is a hackneyed farce rich in gimmicks and poor in substance.

While this was a pretty fun film for the most part, I feel like they held back at many key points of the storyline where they didn’t need to show restraint. I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing. It left it not that gory, for the most part, when considering the subject matter. Because of this I think it opens itself up to more people who might want to watch it. But on the other hand, it felt kind of bland as it didn’t push the envelope. It’s very dark and has some unsettling moments, but you could see where things were heading for the most part leaving me prepared and not shocked or offended. I’m not sure that’s what the film makers intended with this movie. Especially with such rich characters choices from 4 good actors who put on great performances. I think it’s worth a watch just to see and hear some of Jeffery Donovan’s performance. Not a must see, but it entertained for an hour and a half.

Horror movie with comedy elements from 2019. The vehicles of two young lovers who robbed and escaped run out of fuel. They find a house in the forest. There is no one at home. They go inside to steal the fuel of the car in the garage of the house and find a little girl chained by her feet in the basement. Meanwhile, the owners of the house come. I think the host man in the movie is the most sympathetic character. The man's wife is a different annoyance, and the young lovers are not sympathetic because they are not innocent. The movie is mediocre and boring and absurd in places. There is sexuality in the film, but no nudity.

Strong performances by the cast are overshadowed by the fact that the plot that makes little sense, is filled with needless plot twists and fails to capitalise on the interesting premise. I wanted to like this one but the writing really tanked it.

If anyone shows interest in this movie, it's probably because the lead is Bill Skarsgård, who's best known as the evil clown in the "It" thrillers. He's teamed up with Maika Monroe as a couple of small-time thieves who break into a house and end up in an unfortunate encounter. The concept is certainly compelling, but the continuous neurotic dialogue (even though probably intentional) is just irritating. Even though the couple is supposed to be pretty dumb, their performances lack anything to make them amusingly charming. To make matters worse, there are so many missed opportunities, both in their plight and in the film's potential. I kept wanting to like it, but the profusion of dumb twists and unreconciled developments keep it from developing the tension that's promised.

The performances of the cast were all great. Sadly I can't say the same for the movie as a whole. I can't recommend to watch this movie, the writing is extremely bland, characters are dumber than a bag of rocks, and things only happen to serve the plot. Each scene feels disconnected from the last, and characters seem to do impossible things or nothing at all.