Surrogate

I had heard about this movie when it was in production and have been highly anticipating its release. Now that I've seen it, it didn't disappoint! The director, Dave Willing has really taken his knowledge of old school horrors and made a masterpiece. My favourite scene is the séance, so compelling that I had to watch it twice. Elly Stewart is an outstanding young actress who is going to go places in a big way. Kestie Morassi was great as Natalie, the tortured mother trying to save her family. Loved her in Wolf Creek and loved her in Surrogate. I highly recommend people watch this film as there's a lot of suspense packed into 90 minutes.

Getting a five-star rating out of ten, and being called the best of the genre for the year, will give you an indication of the phenomenally bad crop of horror films (and almost ALL films) from 2022 so far, and it is almost November. This one is passable, although there are some amateurish spots. The lead actress is very good and has a future in legitimate film. The director as well seems to be destined for better things as well (as long as he gets out of the horror genre). When asked which was harder to make, Stanley Kubrick mentioned that The Shining was much harder to make than Barry Lyndon, which required thousands of hours of make-up, lighting, and sound testing. Making good horror films is very difficult, which is why there are so few good ones.

Surrogate is scary but it also has complex characters you care about which makes it tragic. It's not a cheap exploitation horror nor is it one of those 'slow burn' (ie boring) mood pieces pretending to be profound with no tension whatsoever. The director has a sharp eye for camera placements that forces you to experience the horror and with lots of little details peppered through out Surrogate is a stand out from the usual modern fare.

Jane plays quite a different role from her usual but is terrific in Surrogate. It's not only a really well acted horror film, it's visually striking and haunting with a story that moves along at a clip.

Surrogate has to be one of the best film's I've seen in a long while. The musical score during the opening credits sets up the film perfectly - creepy, intense with atmospheric dread.

It's such a well-crafted and compelling story that keeps you invested right through to its unsettling final scene. The film doesn't rely on jump scares, although there are a couple in there, instead the real scares come from the story and storytelling itself which personally stayed with me days later. I couldn't stop thinking about the ending. The Exorcist was the other horror that had that effect on me.

There is so much detail in this film that a second viewing is a must. Horror fans will not be disappointed.