I love the horror genre and have a passion for slasher films. It's my favorite genre of film and, as such, I try and watch every slasher that comes out, good or bad. Since I watch so many, there is usually a pretty good chance that what I am watching is terrible. The thing is though, I like bad horror films, especially slashers because they almost always have something to latch onto. Something like, "that moment was good" or "it looked competent" are common things I have to say about bad horror films. Unfortunately for Punch, only one of those fits.
The movie LOOKS great with airiel drone shots, some visual panache with its cinematography and kinetic camera movements that gives it a great production quality. Usually with bad movies, the camera seems to be stagnant with bad blocking and what-not, but aside from one bad looking shot, Punch is visually interesting.
That's the only good thing I can say about it though. The script is absolutely atrocious with a killer who quips countless corny lines in an otherwise serious film. Every single time we see them, they say some ridiculous pun or line while they are killing the victim. That wouldn't be a problem if the rest of the film were not played 100% straight.
The kills are almost universally lame with only a single decent one in the entire affair. Also, characters never react to someone being killed. There are several moments where two people are being attacked. One gets killed while the other just watches this happen and doesn't run away until the killer is finished with the first victim. This happens in various degrees no less than THREE times in the movie leaving me with the notion that no one actually wanted to live.
Without going into spoilers, the ending puts a cherry on top of the turd pie that was Punch. It makes absolutely zero sense. There is a point about 30 minutes from the end where something happens to a thrown away character. The problem is that there is another throwaway character we don't know in the background not reacting at all to the other ones death when they should be. This leads to a weird edit that was clearly done in the editing bay to atone for the clear blooper when making the movie. There is no other explanation for what happened. It would be like if you stole candy from a convenience store and the store owner sat still while you did so. Then as you are leaving the camera cuts to a close up of the owner nodding his head and giving a thumbs up. Seriously. That is exactly what happens in this movie but in a different situation.
It's one of those rare horror films whose single redeeming quality is the way it looks. 9/10 times a bad horror movies also looks bad. So I guess if you like crisp and clean visuals give it a shot but otherwise stay far away.
The movie LOOKS great with airiel drone shots, some visual panache with its cinematography and kinetic camera movements that gives it a great production quality. Usually with bad movies, the camera seems to be stagnant with bad blocking and what-not, but aside from one bad looking shot, Punch is visually interesting.
That's the only good thing I can say about it though. The script is absolutely atrocious with a killer who quips countless corny lines in an otherwise serious film. Every single time we see them, they say some ridiculous pun or line while they are killing the victim. That wouldn't be a problem if the rest of the film were not played 100% straight.
The kills are almost universally lame with only a single decent one in the entire affair. Also, characters never react to someone being killed. There are several moments where two people are being attacked. One gets killed while the other just watches this happen and doesn't run away until the killer is finished with the first victim. This happens in various degrees no less than THREE times in the movie leaving me with the notion that no one actually wanted to live.
Without going into spoilers, the ending puts a cherry on top of the turd pie that was Punch. It makes absolutely zero sense. There is a point about 30 minutes from the end where something happens to a thrown away character. The problem is that there is another throwaway character we don't know in the background not reacting at all to the other ones death when they should be. This leads to a weird edit that was clearly done in the editing bay to atone for the clear blooper when making the movie. There is no other explanation for what happened. It would be like if you stole candy from a convenience store and the store owner sat still while you did so. Then as you are leaving the camera cuts to a close up of the owner nodding his head and giving a thumbs up. Seriously. That is exactly what happens in this movie but in a different situation.
It's one of those rare horror films whose single redeeming quality is the way it looks. 9/10 times a bad horror movies also looks bad. So I guess if you like crisp and clean visuals give it a shot but otherwise stay far away.
