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patchworkmind
Reviews
Stormhouse (2011)
better than average, all told
Story/Writing: It's a pretty solid claustrophobic story. It's interesting and generally well-written, with only a few "What the heck?" moments. The dialogue is generally good, though the minor characters are fairly stock, interchangeable, and pretty forgettable. One or two of them almost come through sometimes as interesting in their own right, but then the moments are gone. Still, it all works pretty well, and the pace was okay, which is better than most films. And I believe the ending worked. I liked it. (7/10)
Direction/Acting: It's atmospheric, to be sure, just sometimes a bit too dark to see what's going on on-screen. Considering the budget and likely time constraints they were under, I can understand why they made the choices they did. Still, however, a bit too dark too often. The pace was generally good, with only a few short lulls (and they weren't distracting). (6.5/10)
The acting was pretty good across the board, though it seemed the supporting cast's characters were limited by either the script or the director's choices on pacing and story... or possibly both. It was obvious the talent was there, and more from the supporting cast really could've livened things up for tension, in my opinion. It could've given it that feel they were looking for, the atmosphere from John Carpenter's "The Thing". Stormhouse's ensemble cast were good, the main cast in particular. I kept wanting more, though, and that's the biggest drawback for my money. (5/10)
Neighbor (2009)
the worst of the worst
This is by far, by leaps and bounds, and without question the worst movie I have ever had the misfortune to endure. (Note that I've seen well thousands of movies over the course of over forty years of movie-going.) Everything about it that counts is plainly and simply dreadful. The rest is just middling, not bad but not good, just kind of... there. None of the characters are likable or even interesting, not even the titular villain, and so there is no tension, none whatsoever in the whole thing. The villain's M.O. is the usual for torture porn, good old casual sadism. It's the writer/director's M.O. as well. He doesn't seem to care about his story or want us to care about it either. His name credited as the writer/producer/director (in flashing graphics, no less) is all he cared about. (He does it for the special features on the DVD, too.) This movie is so abominably bad it's insulting. The box art is the best thing about it.