Story, story, story, when creating a film there are two important parts that you need when starting, a strong story, and a polished script, films like "Strix" that are crowdfunded on sites like Kickstarter, and Indiegogo all suffer from the same problems, they are written filmed and edited fast and are probably shooting from the first draft of the script, which when watching these films "Strix" included I get the feeling that the script consists of scene descriptions and no dialogue, which feels improved on set. "Strix'' tried to have a story, about a cult kidnapping kids, and whom I assume is the main character Thief who is hired to find one of the girls, that's the story they tried to tell, but with so many characters that they introduce a lot of who never appear again, there isn't much room left for a coherent story.
At over an hour and a half, it was a chore to sit through it left like 45 2 - minute skits that were edited together. Advertising on these films always makes claims like, "Our movie is a throwback to(insert a decade and sub-genre)" however they all feel like cheap rip-offs of a straight-to-video National Lampoons teen sex comedy. A majority of the film is wasted on filler scenes that do not move the plot along and make you want to reach for your phone or prey that another block of 6 ads to break up the monotony, for example, there is a scene involving two of the cult members taking a victim to be converted, or killed I don't remember because the entire scene is one of the cult members talking about his mom's sloppy tacos which are talked about again later, sloppy tacos are more memorable than the main plot of the film.
The look of the film is also inconsistent the best-looking scenes are a lot of B-roll footage that I can assume was filmed with time and care for the crowdfunding campaign to lure in backers all of the other scenes, character dialogue, and establishing shots are a hodgepodge of looks, in scenes where two characters are having a conversation the lighting doesn't match in the two shots, I also noticed and was thrown off by the composition of some of the scenes In one scene we have two characters in a car, and the car isn't centered on the screen, its pushed to the left side of the screen leaving empty space on the right if every scene was filmed this way then I would say that was the style since its the only scene filmed this easy it looks like a mistake.
I can't complain too much about the sets and locations, they had access to a skating rink, and the house sets looked good one bedroom that was supposed to belong to a young girl was lacking any set dressing that made it feel like anything other than a generic bedroom. I can not give a pass on what is supposed to be the lair or home base of the cult, this set is completely made of black trash bags, and black sheets, when I see this in a movie it completely destroys any feeling that I am watching something that is happening in a real world, and looks more like a haunted house with all the lights turned on.
I followed this film through its crowdfunding and was pretty excited about it, and almost contributed in hindsight I'm glad I didn't this film was a huge letdown, and I can not recommend it if you are interested, it is streaming for free on Plex.
At over an hour and a half, it was a chore to sit through it left like 45 2 - minute skits that were edited together. Advertising on these films always makes claims like, "Our movie is a throwback to(insert a decade and sub-genre)" however they all feel like cheap rip-offs of a straight-to-video National Lampoons teen sex comedy. A majority of the film is wasted on filler scenes that do not move the plot along and make you want to reach for your phone or prey that another block of 6 ads to break up the monotony, for example, there is a scene involving two of the cult members taking a victim to be converted, or killed I don't remember because the entire scene is one of the cult members talking about his mom's sloppy tacos which are talked about again later, sloppy tacos are more memorable than the main plot of the film.
The look of the film is also inconsistent the best-looking scenes are a lot of B-roll footage that I can assume was filmed with time and care for the crowdfunding campaign to lure in backers all of the other scenes, character dialogue, and establishing shots are a hodgepodge of looks, in scenes where two characters are having a conversation the lighting doesn't match in the two shots, I also noticed and was thrown off by the composition of some of the scenes In one scene we have two characters in a car, and the car isn't centered on the screen, its pushed to the left side of the screen leaving empty space on the right if every scene was filmed this way then I would say that was the style since its the only scene filmed this easy it looks like a mistake.
I can't complain too much about the sets and locations, they had access to a skating rink, and the house sets looked good one bedroom that was supposed to belong to a young girl was lacking any set dressing that made it feel like anything other than a generic bedroom. I can not give a pass on what is supposed to be the lair or home base of the cult, this set is completely made of black trash bags, and black sheets, when I see this in a movie it completely destroys any feeling that I am watching something that is happening in a real world, and looks more like a haunted house with all the lights turned on.
I followed this film through its crowdfunding and was pretty excited about it, and almost contributed in hindsight I'm glad I didn't this film was a huge letdown, and I can not recommend it if you are interested, it is streaming for free on Plex.
