Sunrise

This subversive garbage from Northern Ireland, UK is not a vampire horror movie and has little to do with the US Pacific Northwest. It's tedious race-baiting that has very little to do with reality.

The sort of backward small American town depicted here does not exist. At least not that I've ever seen and I've lived all over the US including throughout the Pacific Northwest which has a huge disperse Asian population. This film is also insulting toward small town Northern Irish.

The character played by Alex Pettyfer is empty with no depth, although I'm guessing that's how it was directed and I'm beginning to wonder if Guy Pearce isn't overrated. He's played this type of role before in Brimstone, a better film then this one but not by much.

This is a badly produced film that is terribly written and poorly directed.

I was expecting to see a vampire horror film not a social science project with a political agenda.

"Sunrise" aspires to be a slow-burning suspense thriller, but unfortunately, the meticulously built tension fails to ignite in a satisfying way. While the film boasts ok performances, the pacing and underwhelming climax leave you feeling like you sat through a long build-up with nothing to show for it.

The film takes its sweet time revealing its secrets, and the suspense starts to wane with each passing scene. You find yourself yearning for some payoff, a jolt of horror, or even a significant plot development.

Unfortunately, the payoff never quite arrives. The big reveal, when it finally comes, feels underwhelming and will leave you feeling frustrated and shortchanged.

For such a slow paced atmospheric movie, it was very short. The story is simple, yet brutal. A psychopathic redneck and his crazy mother rule a small American town with an iron fist, killing, blackmailing and generally doing bad stuff. The redneck has a particular issue with non-whites, so he goes out of his way to scare them off, run them off or just off them. Guy Pierce was great for the role. And here comes a mysterious stranger - who is not a stranger - back to seek revenge, that being Alex Pettyfer.

There is nothing more than that. The rest is just brooding people, angry people, stupid redneck people and weird creepy soundtrack. Like a very short, slow paced, low budget The Crow.

I don't know why this film is rated so low. Just because people expected action and got "this too shall pass"? Or because people were systematically abused and they didn't seem to be able to do anything about it, which made most watcher feel sick to their stomachs?

Bottom line: Not a masterpiece, but a film worth watching. The IMDb rating is just wrong.

The story is a bit of a riff on the classic vampire tail with some Stephen King elements thrown in. Racist small town terrorizes newcomer Asian family. A stranger crosses paths with this family. He may be friend or foe. His status is not exactly made clear through the film. What is clear is that the direction is awful. What is clear is that script is thin and threadbare but there is enough to make a decent movie with if you have a good director and acting talent. The direction is terrible. At times the film seems to try to have David Lynch moments. What you are left with is a series of shots of dear throughout the film that only add more confusion.

The lead actor is also beyond wooden. He walks around the entire film with a dead stare, which you could argue is part of his character. Except he also acts that way during a scene with someone close to him in which great emotion is expected. Guy Pearce (the reason I saw the film) is his usual great. But he does a lot while given very little and in the end can't carry the entire film or make up for it's shortcomings.

In the end, I'm not going to say not to watch the film, especially if you like Guy Pearce, but do not expect it to be a good one.

Sat down to watched this tonight and was very excited at both the premise and, the both Guy Pierce and Pettyfur were starring.

While production is decent, acting is very good (with some dialogue & scenes being excellent) - this is Guy Pierce, after all, even great acting cannot salvage what is ultimately an extremely boring movie overall.

The title of the movie is also very confusing not to mention the story itself. There are a number of plot holes which leave the viewer asking obvious questions, for which, there are no answers in the themes nor in the dialogue to explain.

All of this while trying not to fall asleep at what are some extremely long, completely unnecessary & repetitive scenes. Excruciatingly long camera pans of objects such as a chain, wind up just being utterly boring instead of building tension or fear

Outside of Pierce's acting or a desire to take a nap, I would skip this one entirely tbh. 5/10 for the acting & cinematography.