Shall We Play?

This whole movie had me thinking I missed a scene or two. At one point I thought maybe it was a sequel to something. The idea is there but there are too many plot holes and not enough back story answered. And what does get answered is easily guessed. Maybe if they remake this with a better script it would be a decent horror movie.

I actually quite liked the storyline, it got me from A to B and linked all of the characters into the story, which a lot of big budget productions often fail to do. Yes, some scenes could be improved, but I felt that would have come from a 'possibly' bigger budget. My main critique is with the cast... the younger leads were great, but I felt the rest of the cast were either under acting or over acting. It was also missing a lot of the intense close-up shots needed to pace the beats of the film. Not a bad film, but the first half of the film was definitely better.

As a fan of most horrors, I thought I'd give this one a go. For what seems like a low budget production, I think it was done well and watchable. I do wish they kind of went more down the road of a psychological thriller rather than a teen horror, I think it would have made it more intriguing. I did enjoy more of the darker points of the film rather than the overdone exorcism scenes and felt that the younger cast were a lot stronger in their performances. Not the best horror I've seen, but also not the worst.

I had the opportunity to sit down and watch the 2020 horror movie "Shall We Play?" in 2021, and I hadn't even heard about it prior to sitting down to watch it. So I didn't know what to expect, aside from it being a thriller movie. And that was essentially all that was needed to make me have an interest in watching it.

But while "Shall We Play?" was watchable, it just was a bit too monotonous and bland for my liking. I must admit that the storyline didn't offer enough of interesting contents to fully provide me with adequate entertainment. So writers Ann Forry and Emma Raine Walker just didn't really deliver where it really mattered.

For a horror movie then "Shall We Play?" just lacked certain key elements to make it a properly memorable and entertaining thriller movie. The events that transpired throughout the course of the movie just felt that they lacked energy, lacked motivation and just didn't pack enough of a punch to really be great.

The acting performances in the movie were, for the most parts, actually not all that bad. But the actresses and actors were definitely limited and hindered by the fact that they didn't have proper contents to work with.

Sure, if you are new to the thriller and horror genre, then I suppose that a movie like this one is a good entry point movie as an introduction to the genre. But for a seasoned veteran such as myself, then director Ann Forry just failed to impress.

My rating of the 2020 movie "Shall We Play?" lands on a three out of ten stars.

I definitely wouldn't recommend this to anyone. The movie is so incredibly boring, I couldn't even make it halfway through. The acting is so bad, it looks like something my high school drama class would have made. The actors look to be in their late 20s-early 30s who are supposed to be playing as teenagers, but are failing miserably at doing so. I made it about 20 minutes into the movie and gave up, I couldn't take the pjorn quality acting any longer. Don't waste your time.

This movie honestly reminds me of what a movie version of a wattpad horror story would be like. It feels like it was written by a 15 year old.