The Black Mass (2023) User Reviews

4.8/10. Not recommended but...

[athanasiosze · 5/10 · 5 March 2024]

I watched it without knowing anything about the plot. I thought this is a "mindless fun" slasher movie. It's not. There is nothing enjoyable here, too bleak/sad/disturbing. This is how serial killer Ted Bundy spent a day of his life, having a psychotic break. There are positive things here, i mean, this movie takes you to a journey into Bundy's mind. Camera focuses on the victims, not him, but there is nothing voyeuristic here. It's just raw and real. This movie doesn't glorify serial killers as many other movies do. It shows you the truth, the ugliness, nothing charming here, it's a movie about the victims not the monsters. It made me uncomfortable to say the least. And i didn't like it, i was not ready for this. It looked more like a documentary or like a FOUND FOOTAGE than a "normal" movie. It gets a bit satisfying in the end, when it shows some shots from the actual Bundy trial. But overall, it was too disturbing for me.

There is zero entertainment value here but if you find it interesting as it was described, you might like it more than me. It's a journey into the heart of darkness. I got goosebumbs when i realise what the title THE BLACK MASS actually means. It's not a sick movie like so many movies, it doesn't "idolize" serial killers and that's a good thing but still, if i knew what this is about, i would have never watched it.

Ted Bundy and the Sorority

[NullUnit · 2/10 · 6 March 2024]

Ted Bundy and the sorority house.... That's this film.

The first 50-55 minutes is rather boring. Filmed as if you are mouse sitting on Bundy's shoulder - listening to his conversations on the phone, watching as he stalks the women in the sorority house... really rather boring, and drab, just an odd voyeuristic approach. There's zero character development for any character in this film.

At around 55 minutes it gets very brutal and violent. And is conveyed as fairly realistic overall. Rather disturbing in general.

The last 10 minutes is pretty poorly acted police footage outside the house... then past newsreel footage of Bundy in court.

I couldn't really recommend this to anyone.

It wasn't enjoyable as a film... it might be somewhat interesting given the speculation of what happened in the sorority house if one has some sense of morbid curiosity. But as "entertainment" not so much. Has an air of a "snuff film" really. It's not horror or thriller.. it's just brutal violence based on real life... almost exploitive given there were real, undeserving, innocent, victims. It's not at all a condemnation of Bundy as a person or his horrific actions.

The Black Mass

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 23 August 2023]

Set over a 24-hour period in 1978 Florida, this movie has a man named Ted (Andrew Sykes) shoplifting and trying to get with someone, anyone and always getting shot down. Director and writer (with Eric Pereira and Brandon Slagle) Devanny Pinn buries the lead quite well, even if I knew who Ted was, knew what would happen next and have seen the story so many times. This is a very different take and if you want to be surprised, well, stop reading.

One night, Ted goes out drinking, following some sorority girls, but he gets too drunk, he comes on too strong and he gets thrown out. Yet he can still follow those girls home and instead of trying to pick them up, he becomes a destroyer, wiping them out one by one because he's Ted Bundy and this is his story.

There's a solid cast on hand - Jeremy London from Party of Five, Kathleen Kinmont from Halloween 4, Lisa Wilcox from Nightmare On Elm Street 4 and 5 and Eileen Dietz from The Exorcist amongst other talented actors.

Unlike so many true crime stories, this puts you in the world of the victims, letting you get to know them before the inevitable. It's very effective and quite disquieting, as the violence doesn't let up.

An immensely enjoyable serial killer outing

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 8/10 · 11 March 2024]

Arriving in a small Floridian community, a series of disappearances have the locals convinced a charismatic stranger might be the serial killer responsible for the reign of terror in the community when his handiwork is discovered at a local sorority house that he has targeted.

This was a highly enjoyable and entertaining genre effort. One of the better features is an immensely strong and engaging setup that plays rather nicely with the idea of the killer lurking in plain sight but no one being obvious to his actions. The laid-back attitude of the times due to its period setting helps this quite a bit with the unassuming nature of the central killer being able to make his way amongst the suburban landscape of the sorority house who he seems to target comes off quite well in the first half with it clear he's involved with them from the beginning. Skulking around their house, eavesdropping on mundane conversations, and getting interrupted in seemingly obvious if inconspicuous abductions that are played off with a natural sense of just being around an unfamiliar community that doesn't know him, creating a perfectly serviceable setup. This manages to be incredibly worthwhile at playing up the second half where his psychotic tendencies spill over into a massive killing spree against the various students at the sorority house. This whole section of the film comes off impressively due to the filmmaking style employed throughout the sequence where the use of the non-breaking camera shots of the killer moving through the area knocking off the sorority members in quite graphic and brutal fashion, and with the films' unflinching nature due to the way this section of the film is shot it's all incredibly up front and confrontational in a grand manner. The main issue here is the somewhat flat ending that comes about naturally due to its origins so it's not truly to be held against the film but does leave an unsatisfying feeling afterward due to how it all comes off. Again, this is to be expected given the subject matter and origins, but on the whole, there's a lot to like here.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence.

Right in front of their eyes

[kosmasp · 9/10 · 1 September 2023]

No pun intended - I did not know about the twist this had coming up, but after a phone call I sort of understood. I had suspicions before that .. but I never thought about them too much. If you watch this, I would suggest watching it without reading too much about it. It is best experienced like that ... because of the subject matter and ... when it plays.

Btw. What was it: 8 shooting days? Or just 4? Anyway, this is quite the achievement! And it is even better because this is finally something that shines a light on victims rather than the perpetrator ... other movies are quite voyeuristic in that regard to be honest. So this works way better (for me) - having said that, don't think that it holds back on violence ... you will cringe! Believe that! And rightfully so.

Devanny Pinn was there for the screening and it was really nice seeing and hearing her talk about it! It is time to empower victims and take away power from evil people ... there is no reason we should know the name of a mass shooter ... no reason at all! Actually there are a lot reasons that speak against it. As the movie right here shows.

She may called in a few favors and was humble enough to say they didn't have too many set accessory from the 70s ... but to me it looked mighty fine! And the music choice? The first song just gets you back ... way back ... hats off! This is very well done indeed!