Tag Archives: horror

Film & TV

She Will – A Review by Eva Marloes

Leave a comment
out of 5 stars (3.5 / 5)

Contrary to so many horror films that over the years have depicted nature as the enemy and their female protagonists as victims, Charlotte Colbert’s She Will is a tale of personal and collective trauma and empowerment found in a deep connection with the land.

The film opens with the ageing film-star Veronica Ghent (Alice Krige) in a luxurious art deco train compartment taking Traumadol to relieve the pain from a recent double mastectomy. She is travelling with her young nurse Desi (Kota Eberhardt) to a retreat in the Scottish Highlands. At their arrival, they are met with exaggerated characters headed by Tirador, played by Rupert Everett in a little too caricatural Oscar Wilde pose.

All around is a wild and bleak forest that was once the theatre of the execution of women accused of witchcraft. The ground has absorbed the women’s power, be that of witches or of victims of a misogynistic crime, and it now insinuates itself in Veronica’s life bringing healing as well as power.

Director Charlotte Colbert excels at weaving together the physical elements of the forest with the symbolism of trauma and healing. The ground penetrates into Veronica’s cabin as a black sludge and into her dreams as nightmares. It liberates her from the shame she feels of her scarred body, deprived of breasts, symbol of femininity. It also brings redemption from the childhood trauma of being sexually exploited by the director of the film that launched her career, played by Malcolm McDowell. As Veronica embraces the power in the mud, her spirit haunts the film director who commits suicide.

Alice Krige dominates the film with intensity, subtlety, and charm. Krige’s Veronica is captivating in her transformation from a former film-star clinging to beauty by masking her body to an empowered woman with no fear. It is ironic that she played the evil witch in the faux feminist Gretel and Hansel that was so rife with misogynistic themes (see review). 

The film is at its weakest when it leaves behind symbolism and tries to portray real characters and situations. Veronica’s relationship with her nurse Desi has little life in it notwithstanding solid performances. The attempted rape of Desi by a local young man is contrived, only serving the purpose of presenting an example of misogynistic violence which is punished by the revengeful forest. Other characters are a little too incidental adding little and at times disrupting the cohesiveness of the film. 

Aside Krige, it is the physical and mental landscape that carries the film conveyed by the striking photography of Jamie Ramsay who fuses together the haunting images of Veronica’s nightmares and fantasies and the dark and sinister landscape all around her. 

The choice of Scotland as a setting resonates historically. Between 1563 and 1736, an estimated 3837 people in Scotland were accused of witchcraft, a much higher proportion than in other European countries. 84% of them were women. It is estimated that over 60% of the accused were executed. This historical injustice has been addressed by the Witches of Scotland campaign, which has led to an official apology by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and has inspired movements in other countries. 

Film & TV

Review Gretel and Hansel by Eva Marloes

1 Comment

out of 5 stars (3.5 / 5)

With Gretel and Hansel, Oz Perkins retells the famous Grimms’ tale centreing it on Gretel’s ability to survive in a hostile world and overcome the temptation of evil. One should not be fooled by the title and the focus on Gretel and believe that it is a feminist rendering of the tale. The film hasn’t got an ounce of feminism or women’s empowerment. On the contrary, it is infused with the traditional misogynistic tropes of mad women and witches as women who kill children, including their own. It is not a misogynistic film either, thanks to a pervasive ambiguity, a clever weaving together of the stories of its protagonists, and subtle acting. 

Faced with poverty and starvation, the mother of Gretel and Hansel turns mad and kicks them out. There begins Gretel’s journey of growing up and taking responsibility for herself and her little brother. She acts as a mother towards Hansel, protecting him from danger until Hansel’s hunger leads them inside the house of the witch. Gretel is at first wary of the hospitality of the witch. She becomes seduced by the witch’s knowledge and power. The witch teaches her magic, but it is a dark magic that requires sacrifice. The witch tells Gretel that she sacrificed her own children and asks Gretel to sacrifice Hansel to gain power. 

Historical scholarship has shown that women victims of witch hunts were often those who did not conform to patriarchal norms and fulfil their roles as dutiful wives and daughters. Louise Jackson’s research on the Suffolk witch trials of 1645 shows that these were unmarried women, widows who lived alone, women suffering from depression, women who were not as submissive as they were meant to be.  

The type of crimes of which the women were accused mirrored in reverse the tasks imposed by their social role of mothers and wives. As mother and wives, they were meant to feed, nurture, heal, and give birth. Thus, they were accused of poisoning, infanticide, harming, and of death. The witch is the opposite of the good wife and mother. It was not religious zealotry what motivated the witch-hunt, rather the systematic controlling of women. The pressure was so high that women convinced themselves that they were indeed witches and confessed to being a witch. 

The mythical figure of the witch is constructed in opposition to the good wife and mother. She is dangerous and evil because she is not under the control of male authority. In the 1890s, as the figure of the New Woman begins to emerge in fiction and art (think Gustav Klimt), the witch and the female vampire are presented as strong in their sexuality, though largely still for the gaze of men. One of the central features of how women have been portrayed, especially in horror stories, is their dangerous power, which comes from their body, its ability to seduce, to give life, and thus destine us to death. Life is the beginning of death.  

The film balances well the allure of the dark power of the witch with Gretel’s attempt at being responsible for life. It is, however, full of allusions and short of clear intent. The cinematography (by Galo Olivares) is slick without indulging in the aestheticism so prevalent in today’s cinema. Sophia Lillis, as Gretel is excellent, though it is Alice Krige, as the haggard-witch, who steals the show. The slow pace makes the film suggestive and subtle for most part. Alas, in the final act the writing (by Rob Hayes) turns artificial and wants to make a point quickly. It assumes a moralistic tone and falls for a simplistic triumph of good over evil. It’s as if the male authors couldn’t help but restoring order.  

Film & TV

Review Overlord by Jonathan Evans

Leave a comment

out of 5 stars (3 / 5)

Nazis are great, easy villains. They have a simple, distinct name, have an iconic look and logo so can be easily visually recognized as well as overenunciated accents. Plus they obviously committed such atrocities that they lend themselves to any deplorable situation, whether it be factual or some fantastical, made up scenario. This movie is the latter.

Overlord is not a movie like Apocalypse Now, Paths of Glory or Platoon where you come away from it with a unique view of war as well as the human condition. No, it is like running the gauntlet of video game levels where characters are simple, the explanation is minimal and about the experience. From boss fight, the sneaking around to full-on shooters this is like a really cool video game you won’t get to play but is still really cool to watch.

Little time is wasted, as soon as the movie starts we are in a plane filled with paratrooper ready to be dropped into their mission. Said mission is to destroy a radio tower, in France, that is blocking communication for American soldiers which makes it difficult. Bullets start popping up from below them so now it’s time to jump out.

On the ground, some survive the journey down and others don’t. Who we do have is Ed Boyce (Jovan Adepo) one who is possible too gentle a soul to face the harshness of this war, Captain Ford a very experienced, no-nonsense soldier that has a Kurt Russell swagger about him (convenient because he is his son), Tibbet (John Magaro) a wisecracking sniper that is by no means sensitive or an optimist, Chase (Ian De Caestecker) a photographer, Dawson (Jacob Anderson) that wants to write a book about all his experiences after the war and Rosenfield (Dominic Applewhite) Boyce’s friend.

During the course of the movie characters die, I don’t mean the Nazi’s themselves or some random character that was introduced for a minute then gets their brains blown out, I mean the core group that we get introduced to. We get to know them, they have their characteristics and some happen at different points in the movie. These people aren’t invincible and it adds to the action because now we know there are in fact stakes. I consider myself to be wise to the usual way conventional movies playout and there were some surprises to me so there may be some for you too.

When we get under the radio base we learn that there is much more going on that blocking signals. They are using some hidden element and using it to raise the dead. Yes, that’s right, Zombies! In fact Nazi Zombies! But not the Romero dumb, slow walking ones, these seem to remain intelligent but are driven mad because of the heat and are imbued with great strength, feel no pain and are no easily killed at all (then again what zombies are?).

This is stylized action and depictions of the war. The explosions are VERY loud and the soldiers don’t ever seem to suffer the consequences of being rather near an explosion (except the ones that die). Also whenever someone is shot there is half a bucket of blood that is thrown out from the other side. It’s not at the level of a Tarantino movie, but it’s near it, most likely inspired by it.

During the sequence where – sneaks into the base, I realized that the camera was just following him around and the story was being told through visuals. This is the movies Hitchcock scene, usually, these kinds of movies don’t have much faith in their audience to keep their attention beyond gunfights and yelling dialog, but in this scene, it shuts up and embraces the cinematic, visual storytelling element of cinema. This isn’t necessarily a great scene, but it is much more than what I would have expected.

When all is over the war is still going on and some characters survive which opens it up for a sequel which will most likely happen

 

Film & TV

Review Halloween (2018) by Jonathan Evans

Leave a comment

My god, this franchise is confusing. Ironic because the original movie is so a simple, and minimal with its story.

John Carpenter’s original Halloween is one of the essential watches for horror lovers and movie fans in general. It is the perfection of the slasher genre, with a killer that is pure evil, a simple but effective way of shooting it and a score that hooks itself deep in your brain. Yet at the end of the movie it seems like it was done but the success meant more had to be made and so they made seven more movies, then Rob Zombie told his version of the material with two movies and now we are here, forty years later from the original and ignoring all the middle material. But this is the third movie to be titled Halloween. Told you it was confusing.

Opening the movie are two British podcasters that host a show about killers, crimes and other such grim subject matter. They go to Smith’s Grove Rehabilitation Hospital where for forty years Michael Myers has been kept locked away from the rest of the world, never speaking a single word. One of them has something for Michael though, the mask he wore on his night of rampage. This sends the other inmates into a frenzy but Michael still stands there not saying a word.

Cutting then to the classic score we all know from this franchise and a rotten Jack-O-Lantern that slowly reforms back to life, a symbol of Michaels reawakening, the franchise and this whole gruesome affair.

Carpenter himself does not fill the directing chair this time around but he is back as the composer. Carpenter composed nearly all his movies and Halloween was arguably his best job. A dark theme that is like the pulsing of the heart that grips you in tension and then a movement that ignites fright. In recent years he has been more focused on his music and he is very good at it. Here he gets to do one of the things he does best, he doesn’t completely reinvent the theme or copy and paste it, it stays true to the core of the score and adds little things, like a power chord from a guitar and other layerings to deepen then experience, it’s a great score that has received an appropriate update.

Filling in the directors chair is David Gordon Green. He has a diverse filmography, nothing that would make someone point to him and say “He’s the man for this job!” but we’ve had plenty of surprises of directors taking on franchises and actually doing great things with them. He and cinematographer Michael Simmonds incorporate a few intricate long shots that build up the suspense well and he portrays the kills with loud screams and plenty of blood.

Whenever something becomes truly popular and others seek to replicate it and/or a franchise is kicked off there is a big risk of homogenization. We want to feel like this is the world and characters that we’re familiar with but not a color-by-numbers experience. This gets a little closer to it but luckily strikes the right balance of being its own thing while taking its cues from the original and also giving a few nods while it’s at it. An example of this is that a key image is a white mask Michael wears, there isn’t any true significance to the mask itself, it was chosen because it has blank features which reflect the character, in context Michael stole a mask while getting ready for his night of slaughter. Same for the boiler suit, he happened to cross paths with an unlucky worker, here he by chance kills another worker in a similar navy blue boiler suit, would he have taken a red one? Or not killed him if it was yellow?

The most original part of this entire movie is how it portrays Laurie Strode. She is now a grandmother, slightly estranged from her daughter and granddaughter, living in a fenced off house ready of anyone that comes looking for trouble. It’s not that unbelievable yet I can’t think of many other movies that have done this, so many characters in horror sequels seem to go back into normal life after the traumatic events. Laurie was just a regular teenage girl and for no real reason came face to face with her friends being killed and pure evil. Jamie Lee Curtis fills the role with badass authority, taking no nonsense while she loads her guns and fragility, clearly having to live her life in fear and paranoia.

This is a refocus of Michael Myers as an unstoppable force of nature. A slow monolith of death that will keep coming no matter what. This was the original intention and is what makes the character so endearing. But in the first movie he was twenty one years old, now he’s in his sixties, I have to question whether his slow pace is because he doesn’t need to rush or because he’s getting on in years. Another interesting touch is that Nick Castle is playing him again, he hasn’t done that since the first movie. His average height and build add to his inconspicuous nature and his smooth walk with an upright posture adds to the unsettling nature because he’s about to commit the most barbaric act. An extra touch is the prominent sound of his boots while walking, like the ticking clock of death, they sometimes abandon this when he needs to pop out of the shadows. I guess that would make him easier to find.

This is probably the best sequel that this great movie ever got (though there truly isn’t much heavy competition), it caters to the fans while invites new viewers in. But part of the enduring quality of the first movie was how it could show horrible acts but could be quiet and slow. This movie is more generic and loud. In terms of slasher horrors this could be much less subtle and more poorly made, for Halloween, it could be better but is worthy enough to have the name.

Rating: 3 stars

Film & TV

Review The Secret of Marrowbone by Jonathan Evans

Leave a comment

Horror works best when the frightening moments are left in the blank spaces. We can have scream’s and see horrific sights but the elements that truly grip us are what we do not see or the things that go by unexplained and we are left to conjure the terrifying within our own minds. The Secret of Marrowbone uses this as the launching point to hook us as audience members and keep us watching through the experience.

A family enters a run-down old mansion way out in the middle of the countryside. The mother marks a line in the dust and says once they cross it all things before will be forgotten and this is their new start, especially Father. The family is Jack (George MacKay) the eldest at twenty years old, Billy (Charlie Heaton) the angsty younger brother, Jane (Mia Goth) the peacemaker and little Sam (Mathew Stagg). They live in the house under the name Marrowbone, fix up the house and have a fun time, one day out all of the children meet Allie (Anya Taylor-Joy). Meanwhile, the mother is getting sicker and sicker and eventually passes. If her death is known before Jack turns twenty-one the children will be put into care so it has to remain a secret. One peaceful day a shot comes through the window, Jane looks through and there is a man standing across the house, she yells, Jack runs and then it cuts to months later. This is where the movie truly begins.

Now it is months later and all the mirrors have either been removed or covered in sheets, there is a large red stain on the ceiling and they all speak of a ghost in the loft. Only Jack is allowed to venture into town for the essentials.

While in town one day he meets up with Allie and they clearly want to be together, however also on the scene is Tom (Kyle Soller) a lawyer that is also interested in Allie and is seeing to the Marrowbonbe’s affairs.

The cast is one of the most solid elements of the movie. Everyone fills a certain role but they are able to reach different emotional levels, from being passive aggressive to full rage. The standout is Anya Taylor-Joy, who brings such realized, caring nature to the performance.

Some of the most effective moments of the movie are the sequences of fright. We all know them, dark room, something’s in there, and somethings gonna go boo! But this movie times its shots very well and there is an appropriate amount of buildup to them. The most effective element is that there are moments when something can happen and all the air gets sucked out of the room for a few moments. Sometimes something does go boo, others nothing happens so we are always left guessing.

Within these moments are tender ones though, moments of the family having fun, joking. An entirely doom and gloom movie would ultimately become a purely depressing experience, contrast needs to happen.

By the end of the movie, all is revealed. Perhaps if all wasn’t it would be a better movie, but I digress. It took me a bit to go over some of the details that didn’t sit right with me immediately when everything was revealed but after going over it it does all hold up well.

The Secret of Marrowbone cuts deep by leaving you not knowing when it will cut or even what by. When it does it is sharp and efficient. It has a heart, which many horror movies lack, comes with a talented and invested cast and understands the mechanics of the genre very well.

Rating: 4 stars

Film & TV

Review Hereditary by Jonathan Evans

Leave a comment

“I was watching Poltergeist last month, I got a question. Why don’t white people just leave when there’s a ghost in the house?”

-Eddie Murphy

out of 5 stars (1 / 5)

This isn’t the main problem, but it is one of the many that plagues Hereditary.

Horror is a medium that at it’s best reveals our deepest insecurities and troubles as people. This movie means nothing and simply seeks to gross and horrify us with, the images and sounds it slaps us with.

We open with a house and inside it is a family that is preparing for a funeral. It is the grandmother who has died and the mother, Annie, is dreading the ordeal. Meanwhile on the side is her daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro) that keeps to herself, draws in her sketchbook and makes a clicking noise with her mouth. The son Peter is a pretty normal, apathetic teenager. We learn that Annie’s mother was very nice at all during her life and won’t be missed now she’s passed. But just because she’s passed doesn’t she’s done tormenting her daughter and grandchild and all sorts of strange things start happening from here on.

You get to a point where you’ve seen enough movies to have an understanding of typical genre movies. In comedy, you tell when there will be a misunderstanding or a bit of slapstick. Horror is one where you know if there is blank space on the screen then something will move or jump out, or when there will be a build-up to something and nothing will happen only for the character to take a breath and that is when the thing goes boo! This movie is guilty of being predictable. I could tell how the scenes were going to play as soon as they started.

For some of it you don’t know where it’s going then you don’t care because all it’s doing is stitching one gross-out, disturbing moment with the next to give you a tapestry of horror. It doesn’t, it’s just annoying.

In the recent years, we have gotten some original voices and experiences in horror movies. Like, Don’t Breathe, Mother!, Get Out, A Cure for Wellness, A Quiet Place, Unsane and The Babadook. All of these movies tap into a core fear that individuals feel or the problem of people as a whole and have a whole vision. These movies will be remembered, this one will be forgotten.

It is easy to overlook the acting when the concept doesn’t work or the writing is garbage. But this movie does have actors that genuinely good performances. Toni Collette as Annie truly and clearly conveys terror across her face, I believe she is scared in these situations. Likewise, Alex Wolff has to be a few things over the course of the movie and does them all well. What a shame that these talented people and all their effort go into a big pile of garbage like this.

 

This movie is not boring, it is however frustrating. Frustrating in how it uses the most simple, stupidest tolls to scare you, when it doesn’t, it just goes boo! Frustrating that all these actors and crew had to waste their time on a rotten project. Horror is a brilliant genre that can reveal things about ourselves, not this, it’s just a waste.

 

Film & TV

Review A Quiet Place by Jonathan Evans

Leave a comment

out of 5 stars (5 / 5)

 

You can go outside, you can eat, bathe, all the other things, just don’t make a sound, for then the monsters will get you!

This dark tale picks up after what would usually be the in-sighting incident. The monsters have already come and wiped out a lot of other people. A family is surviving fine, they all go out into an abandoned town and enter a mostly empty abandoned store, they gather what they need and leave. While walking home the youngest boy puts batteries in a toy plane he found, it lights up and makes noises. Dread instantly fills the faces of the others, the Father races to him, all the others can do is cover their mouths so not to make any noises themselves, the father races and races, something moves in the trees and before he can get to his son something has leaped out and taken him.

We gather through careful and skillfully placed visual information that monsters have come and they are blind but are very sensitive to and instantly attack sound. So all they need to do is not make a noise.

What cinema offers as a medium, is to show you things through movement. Not tell you things, if you want to be talked to you can get that in comics, books, or radio plays. Cinema is about expressing its story or message through the image and the movements on the screen, that is what Hitchcock referred to as “Pure Cinema” which is what is present here.

The best visuals require no dialogue. If the dialogue is good then great, but the truest essence of something visual should not require an explanation. All the actors are rendered mute for approximately ninety percent of the movie, yet through body language, they are able to convey their fear, determination, even a little bit of humor into their existence. Emily Blunt as the mother, Millicent Simmonds as the deaf daughter (who is deaf in real life)

https://youtu.be/ybZUX6kxrgc

Noah Jupe as the young son all brings to life people that must feel many things through this story and with virtually no words. Special credit goes to John Krasinski who plays the father as well as serving other duties as director, writer, and producer, this is clearly his vision that he has worked very hard to create.

Immense care has been given to constructing the families lifestyle to living without making a sound. They use sign language to converse (which is accompanied with subtitles), they pour powder down on a path where they walk to soften the sound of their footsteps, the house where the floorboards creek have paint marking where it is safe to step. They play board games and have to roll the dice onto a cloth and the game pieces are made of foam, plush or sponge. Such details like these show how well the concept has been thought through and help us connect with the characters living situation.

The creatures themselves are of course a major focus point. We don’t really know if they are aliens, a science experiment went wrong or demons. But such knowledge is out of the characters to reach and is superfluous anyway. What matters is the situation they have put the character in. They are very threateningly designed, though I will forgo a description and let you watch the movie for yourself. What truly matters is the skillful way in which they are not seen, when a loud noise is made there is so much dread that fills the scene, before anything of them can be seen or heard we register that these things mean death, pure and simple. For most of it, we only get flashes of them as they strike lightning fast and they disappear. Don’t worry, we get a good, full look at them, but these early scenes serve to wet our appetites.

Whilst it is built on a very intriguing premise, one that could fuel a classic literary work or a very memorable episode of The Twilight Zone or Outer Limits, it is in the thinking through and execution that makes A Quiet Place one of the most well made and striking horror movies to come out in a while. It is minimal in exposition details but deep in thinking through how to deal with the situation and masterful in crafting it’s scares.

 

Theatre

Review Wait Until Dark, New Theatre, Cardiff by Jane Bissett

Leave a comment

out of 5 stars (4 / 5)

As I made my way to the Theatre on a dark and wet November evening I was unaware of the theatrical experience that is Wait Untill Dark would have on my walk home – in darkness…..

WAIT UNTIL DARK is a cautionary tale set in the mid 1960s. About a young photographer (Sam) who in agreeing to assist a fellow passenger on an aircarft flight from Amsterdam sets in motion a chain of events that will affect his household in a way he could not fore tell nor indeed understand.

Human beings are either able to embrace darkness or have an inate fear of it. There is something about the isolation of being in the dark which enduces our inner fears of the things we cannot see or understand.

This story centres on Susy the newly married wife of Sam. Susy is blind and learning to live her life in darkness following an accident.

As the story unfolds we watch as a small gang of vilains are trying to discover the whereabouts of a missing doll which has been used as a carrier for drugs.

The gang mistakenly believable Susy knows the whereabouts of the doll although is unaware of its value. They set in motion an elaborate plan to retrieve the doll by deception and fear.

Using a tried and tested method of operation the gang gain access to the basement flat and conduct their search with the assistance of Susy who now believes her husband is in danger and if the doll is discovered in his possession he maybe under suspicion of a murder of the woman who originally asked him to take care of the doll.

Despite her blindness Susy soon becomes aware of what is happening as she hears and senses the strange behaviour of the men and is suspicious of their real motives.

With the assistance of her neighbours daughter she sets out to change the power balance to her advantage and to keep herself alive until her husband can get home.

Although set in the 1960s this story could have taken place at any time and in any context and is the stuff that good thrillers are made of.

All the action takes place in a basement flat and the set design was true to the time period in which it was set. A mention must be made of the use of the stair case and we can only commend the cast on their fitness levels as they negotiated the stairs all evening.

Katrina Jones portrayal of Susy was outstanding, a smart woman, in love with her husband and astutely aware of her surroundings. Indeed it was only at the curtain call that it entered my mind that Jones was actually blind.

Shannon Rewcroft gave an amazing performance as Gloria (age 12), so much so that it became believable that she was 12.

The gentlemen of the cast brought the play to life and Tim Treloar’s performance as the gang mastermind ‘Roat’ sent a shiver up the spine.

The whole atmosphere of the play hinged on the set design, lighting and sound and to this end I must commend David Woodhead, Chris Withers and Giles Thomas for bringing to the stage the visual and audio experience that left us all wanting more.

During the final act, as the story reached it climax, the effects on stage not only heightened the scenses of the audience but pulled them further into the action that was taking place in front of their eyes and the tension was almost tangible.

Playwright Frederick Knott’s (1916-2002) legacy to the theatre was believable drama where he set the scene and delivered a thriller that has stood the test of time.

Director Alistair Whatley gave us an evening of sheer pleasure and this amazing cast brought the play to life to create an unforgettable evening of thrilling theatre at its best.

WAIT UNTIL DARK plays at Cardiff’s New Theatre from;

Tuesday 14 – Saturday 18 November at 7.30pm

On Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday there are performances at 2.30pm.

For further details about the show or to book tickets call the Box Office on 02920878889.

Film & TV

Review Happy Death Day by Jonathan Evans

Leave a comment


Happy Death Day is a black comedy with pieces of a genuine horror mixed in, essentially Groundhog Day meets Halloween. From that you can already guess the main problem with the movie, it lacks a distinct personality. It is quite good at times and blunt at others but the overall product has a tonal problem that leaves you coming out of it not sure with what you just saw.
https://youtu.be/ntxS1bBg5o0
It opens with a girl named Theresa waking up in a college dorm room, she is hungover and can barely remember the night before, she goes about her day and things happen that establish that shes popular but not very nice. It is also her birthday, which she doesn’t want people to know or acknowledge herself. She heads out for the night, while on her way a figure appears and stabs her to death. She then wakes at the start of the day and must relive the day of her murder over and over again.
Jessica Rothe plays Theresa. She fulfills everything that the script requires her to do well. She screams very high and loudly, she comes off like a spoiled rich kid, there are other moments that call for her to be funny etc. She does a solid job in the movie.
The killer is dressed entirely in black with a cartoon baby face mask. A good design that is both distinctive and easily recognisable. It may become iconic and then again it might not, but credit goes to creating an easily registrable visual.

With any kind of teen movie as well and having a plot where repetition is a main theme naturally there is a montage sequence. It is stuff like this that clashes with the overall movie. Are we meant to always be laughing or genuinely feel frightened for out main character? At the start we do, then it becomes a case of “ow dang it!” then near the climax we’re meant to feel for her again.
This is a spoiler free review but I will say that the two main questions I had while watching the movie were (obviously) how is all of this happening? And how does the killer seem to always magically track her down? We get answers to none of these.
The concept is fine and the execution is good at times as well. However it’s stereotypical portrayal of teens and suffering from either not knowing what it wants to be or wanting to be too many things it becomes pieces of a solid work rather than a whole. If there are no better offers at the cinema then it isn’t a waste, but is also only worth one watch.

Jonathan Evans