I never give out one star reviews. Even in the worst movies there is usually something to salvage. In the "Banshee Chapter" there just isn't. It's a unbelievable mess from absolute start to finish. I very badly wanted to turn it off at almost all aspects of the movie but I kept going because I had decided prior hand that I wanted to write a review for it.
Like, I said, usually there is a modicum of anything to salvage even from the worst movies, and I'm a pretty optimistic film watcher in that respect. Banshee Chapter not only is completely garbage, it makes a mockery of the film watcher. I'm beginning to think these 7 and above star ratings are paid shills because there is no way anyone with any self respect would actually... like this?
Let's start with the Utterly tripe and BORING plot. Sure, it seems interesting upon reading about it, exploring the drug experiments the CIA did in the 60s and adding a "Lovecraftian" flair to it. The reality is the film toys with anyone even slightly educated on those topics, even to the point that I thought for a fleeting moment the film was satire. It is not. It just is that badly made. It takes those two narratives and treats them as if a High school film student who just learned of them would. Less even, because that student might have at least some respect for the concepts. Not only that, it introduces a character so badly cut from Hunter S Thompson that it's not even an influence it's an awful caricature of itself.
The actors involved look like they would rather be anywhere else but acting for this film. I cannot remember the last time I saw such a boring and bland lead, and she more then played the part of "give me my promised money and let me go". Half the movie devolves into shouting matches between the lead and the Hunter S. character. The cinematography is laughable, starting off as a found footage/documentary style but then just... abandoning it? halfway through. Somehow the lead found a way to mount her cameras in all different angles throughout the scenes? It wouldn't be a big deal but you can't start as a documentary style and just abandon it without any explanation? Childish.
The ONE positive is there's a few jump scares that actually aren't too bad. The actually scares themselves are a CGI mess, but the tension behind them isn't too bad. My God though if the producers thought 3 decide jump scares and maybe 2 minutes out of the ~90 minute run would be enough to salvage this film, they should have just made a short. Childish again.
Childish, really is what describes this movie the best. What, if ANY, potential there was is smashed like a child running a temper tantrum. The creators of this movie show no respect to movies as an art form. If you told me this was the project of a couple stoned out high schoolers with a massive budget from Dad I that's what I would think it was. Let me reiterate once again, I never give out 1 star reviews and I also don't write such hyperbolic reviews. It's hyperbolic because it needs to be, there is no other way to describe this trashing.
Like, I said, usually there is a modicum of anything to salvage even from the worst movies, and I'm a pretty optimistic film watcher in that respect. Banshee Chapter not only is completely garbage, it makes a mockery of the film watcher. I'm beginning to think these 7 and above star ratings are paid shills because there is no way anyone with any self respect would actually... like this?
Let's start with the Utterly tripe and BORING plot. Sure, it seems interesting upon reading about it, exploring the drug experiments the CIA did in the 60s and adding a "Lovecraftian" flair to it. The reality is the film toys with anyone even slightly educated on those topics, even to the point that I thought for a fleeting moment the film was satire. It is not. It just is that badly made. It takes those two narratives and treats them as if a High school film student who just learned of them would. Less even, because that student might have at least some respect for the concepts. Not only that, it introduces a character so badly cut from Hunter S Thompson that it's not even an influence it's an awful caricature of itself.
The actors involved look like they would rather be anywhere else but acting for this film. I cannot remember the last time I saw such a boring and bland lead, and she more then played the part of "give me my promised money and let me go". Half the movie devolves into shouting matches between the lead and the Hunter S. character. The cinematography is laughable, starting off as a found footage/documentary style but then just... abandoning it? halfway through. Somehow the lead found a way to mount her cameras in all different angles throughout the scenes? It wouldn't be a big deal but you can't start as a documentary style and just abandon it without any explanation? Childish.
The ONE positive is there's a few jump scares that actually aren't too bad. The actually scares themselves are a CGI mess, but the tension behind them isn't too bad. My God though if the producers thought 3 decide jump scares and maybe 2 minutes out of the ~90 minute run would be enough to salvage this film, they should have just made a short. Childish again.
Childish, really is what describes this movie the best. What, if ANY, potential there was is smashed like a child running a temper tantrum. The creators of this movie show no respect to movies as an art form. If you told me this was the project of a couple stoned out high schoolers with a massive budget from Dad I that's what I would think it was. Let me reiterate once again, I never give out 1 star reviews and I also don't write such hyperbolic reviews. It's hyperbolic because it needs to be, there is no other way to describe this trashing.
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