Motion Detected

In 1965 one of the world's top directors cast one of the world's top stars in an oddball B&W horror film called REPULSION. The film was a major international success, and also set the standard for creepy horror films following a lead actor (usually a pretty girl) performing daily tasks in a really creepy house. This genre was especially appealing to first-time film-makers because the ingredients were so basic -- girl, house, camera, film, script. Dozens of these kinds of productions were done in the following decades --- culminating with the bizarre CHRISTINA'S HOUSE (1999), which added a new ingredient to the mix, a serial killer hiding (literally) in the walls of the house. MOTION DETECTED can be considered a throwback to this style of film-making, with "technology" filling in for the serial killer. Everything about this film could have been done so much better -- the script especially. The end result, however, is a herky-jerky production that fails more often that it succeeds. Nostalgia lovers only. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

Since it became the first film festival that I ever attended when it was held in 2019, Cine-Excess has remained at the top of my most anticipated movie related event each year. Signing up straight after Grimmfest finished,I got ready to detect motion.

Note:Review contains some plot details.

View on the film:

Holding a house warming party alone as her partner says on the phone he will be down in a few days, Natasha Esca gives a very good performance as Eva, whose memory of suffering a horrific home invasion at her last location, is captured by Esca as something Eva continues to wrestle with, whilst attempting to wipe the slate clean in this new home, which dials into Eva's lingering fear the invader will re-emerge.

Cracking open the secrets to the household with a dipped in infra-red opening, co-writers/ debut directors Justin Gallaher & Sam Roseme stylishly cross the wires of the Home Invasion Thriller with high-tech supernatural Horror vibes, via glossy dolly and panning shots mapping out each corner of the house,which lead to chilly close-ups and anxious hand-held camera moves, as the security system sets the alarm on Eva.

Exploring the history of the house by having the opening focus on the previous residences, the screenplay by Gallaher and Roseme disappointingly does not match the slickness of their directing style, instead taking a stop/start approach, where it starts setting up that the previous family are ghosts/trapped in the security system, and then just randomly completely drops it, while Eva awkwardly moves between psychological fears,and the under-developed high concept threat of motion detected.

Lol where do I start with this movie. The idea of A. I. house security systems in this movie is never going to come to life in reality that is for sure. The Mexican romance in this movie was very stupid/unrealistic but very hilarious/funny/weird and awkward (whenever it would show in the movie my reaction would be what the hell is going on ?!). There is a lot of wrong/weird/abnormal things in this movie. YOU JUST HAVE TO SEE IT TO KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT. But the idea of A. I. house security system mixed with digital spirts is very un-real and intangible.

P. S this movie is very disoriented and some movie scenes make the whole movie unorganized/ lack connection which not only hinders/ slows down the flow of the story but also makes it difficult for the viewers to understand what is really going on.

This movie is quite simply not worth anyone's time. It's moronic. El Diablo -- the security system -- apparently messes with your head and might even take you to the nether regions.

But the idiosy does not end here. The actors are non-actors. I felt as if I was in a first day reading at some podunk acting lessons studio in San Juan.

The husband and wife have to be the worst actors I've seen in a generation. And whomever wrote this garbage should never work .again.

Direction? What direction? It's a ridiculous movie with no cohesive structure to speak of. It also pulls out every demon-in-the-house trope you can think of.

To show you how bad this is, the wife takes the obligatory shower for literally 5 seconds (not racy at all) and she has a brand new dry bar of soap in her hand that she never uses even tho the water is streaming on her. She PRETENDS to use it.

None of it passes the smell test.

When a beautiful young woman is left alone in a luxurious, but haunted house, after moving from Mexico City.

She spirals into a state of paranoia.

Largely due to the "smart" technology system, which monitors, not only, everything in her house...but the entire neighbourhood.

Including her biometrics...and even her dreams.

In which she is tormented by a masked, knife wielding, character, who may or may not be a "ghost in the machine".

I say may or may not, because it's not inherently clear.

What is clear, is that they were going for a sort of Paranormal Activity vibe.

However, the film is plagued with horrible acting.

Some really poorly edited flashback (and flash-forward) sequences.

And a plot structure which makes no sense, whatsoever.

So, despite it's polished look, it comes off as rather amateurish.

There's no doubt it's supposed to be a psychological thriller.

But most of the psychologically based plot points are incredibly poorly developed.

Having been thrown in, without any explanation whatsoever.

You can't help but hope that these loose ends will be tied up in the end.

But answers about why, and how, just never come to fruition.

Ending with you being left, inexplicably (and inexcusably), in the dark.

Leaving you wondering...what the hell was the point?

Because, from a storytelling perspective...it's flabbergastingly bad.

As it ends with you left in complete and utter confusion.

Which is a confounding tactic, at best.

2 out of 10.