Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

As horror films go, I actually found this one to be quite entertaining to watch. It was easy to empathise with Mike and Kristen losing their child, especially since that’s a scary experience for parents, even when said child’s just wandered off and is quickly found again.

The very first scene was quite an effective one, as it was disturbing to watch, but did a really good job of setting the scene. While I did feel it was deliberate emotional manipulation to show the children in a dangerous situation, there’s no question it did work.

It was good to see the joint effects losing Charlie had on his parents and how they had to deal with his loss. I thought it was good to see the links with the ‘Pay The Ghost’, though by the end of the movie, I was somewhat confused by how the rules worked. I felt it went from a movie with a faint supernatural slant to a completely otherworldly film. It was good to learn about the ghost and get some answers by the end of the movie, rather than everything left to the imagination, but the ghost seemed to be more powerful than I was expecting.

I felt the movie was entertaining to watch, but I wouldn’t really be bothered about watching it again. There were a few good scenes, but although it did explain most of what was going on with the ghost, I felt that the feel of the movie changed a lot towards the end, despite the fact I thought the actors portrayed the characters they were playing really well. I did, however, feel that the police officer involved in the case wasn’t as competent as he could have been. Obviously, while it was understandable he wouldn’t believe in the supernatural, I felt he fell into the trap of assuming the main character was involved in something without looking deeper. In the words of Sherlock: ‘Once you take out the impossible, whatever remains, however implausible, must be the truth’. Or something like that.

(This review may contain spoilers).

While I don’t normally watch films set during wartime, I was intrigued by the trailer of this movie. And since I recognised the two main actors in this movie, I knew it would be a good plot.

This movie was almost divided into two halves. While those two halves were both intense in their own way, it was good they were also different enough to be engaging in their own way.

I did, however, feel like the first half was a bit rushed. While I had the impression quite a bit of time had passed by, I couldn’t quite believe in the feelings Max and Marianne had towards each other. In a way, it did feel like the second half of the movie made the reasons for that clear… but I found much of the second half difficult to suspend my disbelief for, especially during a scene with a jail. Of course, I don’t know very many details about this time period, so I couldn’t speak for how realistic it was. There were two women clearly romantically involved… but there was very little detail about either of them, even though one was Max’s sister. I would have liked some more exploration of their characters and how they interacted with Max and Marianne, rather than just being two rather generic women.

I did think that Max’s and Marianne’s interactions through the first half of the movie did a good job of establishing Max’s personality and it was good to see he had a goal for the end of the movie.

I found the second half of the movie more intense to watch and found myself leaning forward, on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what would happen. I would have preferred the ending to be different… but I honestly couldn’t have seen it ending another way.

While I did become engaged with this movie and cared about the characters and the plot, I don’t think this is a movie I would watch again, as it doesn’t feel I would gain much from re-watching it.

(This review may contain spoilers).

Having enjoyed the Harry Potter movies… and seeing there was a midnight showing of this movie… I decided I wanted to go and see it.

I thought the movie was particularly good when it came to the visuals. The world inside Newt’s suitcase was particularly engaging and it was especially good to be able to see something of the differences in the wizarding cultures.

I did feel the movie was a bit lacking in plot development. I liked Newt, to an extent, and I really liked Kowalski. I even liked Tina and her sister, even though I thought Tina made quite a few mistakes. I was able to empathise more with her… and also more with Kowalski than Newt. Although I liked Newt, he was a little harder to get a read on.

I did think the movie spent more time on the visuals than on developing the storyline. While it was good to see that each of the ‘beasts’ had its own distinctive personality, I felt the plot involving the wizarding community seemed a bit tacked on.

I also felt there was a real lack of foreshadowing in this movie. There were quite a few things shown at the end that didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

I did enjoy Queenie and Kowalski’s interactions. I thought they were both sweet in their own way and even though Kowalski struggled at first, it was really good to see him start to take everything in stride.

I did feel a lot of sympathy for Credence, but considerably less so for his mother. I would have liked some more details about Modesty’s background, as I really didn’t know what to make of her.

The strongest element of this movie was definitely the visual aspect. I think the movie could have been made better by utilising more foreshadowing… but I did feel the ending let it down. While I am going to be watching the movie again with my niece, I don’t intend to buy it on DVD… even though I will probably watch the next movies in the franchise.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I felt this movie also lacked a bit in living up to its potential. I did think it was intriguing to see Peter interacting with his patients. I did feel quite a bit of sympathy for Erica in particular… and there was at least one scarily effective scene with her involved.

I would have liked to see more of Peter interacting with Carol and other characters outside of his patients and colleague. There was a lot that felt very surreal even outside of the strange patients.

It was difficult to see Elizabeth interacting with Peter, especially as the movie went on and towards the end. I did find it confusing to get the constant flashbacks to the past. While I could understand the desire to keep some parts a mystery, even by the end of the movie, I was left with a lot of unanswered questions.

There were quite a few creepy moments and it was good to see there were a lot of personal links to the part of Peter’s past. He did, however, seem to have connections with some characters that only sparked for a short while. I felt what happened with Barry would have been more effective if I’d had the chance to get to know him better.

I did think that some of the characters made some quite bad choices, especially Barbara, considering she was supposed to be a police officer. I did like learning about her history, but I think her character could have been utilised better.

This wasn’t a film I would likely choose to watch again. While there was a lot of potential in the storyline and a few jump scares, I didn’t feel able to form a deeper emotional connection to the characters and by the end of the movie, I was confused about exactly what had happened. The scenes with Peter and his daughter were emotional, but didn’t really feel realistic.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I actually thought there was a lot of potential in this movie. When I read the blurb, I thought the idea was intriguing… and the very first scene was engaging and I was immediately interested in knowing what had happened with Mary.

While it was good to see the sort of personality Mary had had before a piece of her soul was gone, I lost a lot of interest after the start of the movie.

Even though there were parts of this movie that were disturbing (especially towards the end), it actually felt really juvenile. The ghost/spirit that kept appearing looked more cartoonish… and I felt that the acting was really over the top at times and lacked emotion at others. The only character I found realistic and consistent in the family relationship was Victor.

I think this movie could have done with being expanded upon. I actually wasn’t sure if Gina was supposed to actually be Mary’s mother, as at one point, she talks about her as ‘that girl’ in a scene that’s supposed to be quite an emotional one.

While it was interesting to see the contrast between Mary before and after, it was harder to relate emotionally to her and I felt a lot of the connections between characters weren’t formed fully or shown in the right way.

I felt that this movie could have benefitted from a few less characters and although there were a few engaging scenes, the acting seemed to lack a lot of emotion and even Mary’s relationship with her sister didn’t seem very loving. There were a couple of potential jump scares… but those were ones I saw coming a mile off.

There was a lot of potential in this movie, but I felt it fell short of what it could have been. This isn’t a movie I would watch again, I’m afraid.