Girl Next

This is very far from being a masterpiece, but I will still recommend it so let me explain why.

Let us start with the bad. The directing here is pretty bad, the story is pretty good but executed upon poorly and the writing that could have elevated the story is severely lacking. Music is horrible. Camera work is abysmal.

The acting is half and half. Half of the actors are great half the time, the other half suck half the time, mostly it is just meh.

So why am I giving this a 6/10 and why am I still recommending it?

Well the movie itself has a decent core story, albeit the script is not doing the story justice. But if you only look at the overarching story by itself, and especially the post credit scene (yes! Don't miss it!) this is pretty great. Also we get a trans woman as a main evil antagonist, I thought that was illegal?

Lacey Cofran is excellent in the protagonist role, although as with the rest; the script and directing is ruining performance. She is also gorgeous and I believe she might get more (and better) roles in the future.

I actually think there is a good movie here, hidden among all the trashy over the top dialogue and weird directorial work and horrible script. All the actors, with perhaps one exception, are excellent and do a great job with absolutely nothing to work with. With a great director, a bit more budget, and writers that can actually write I think this could have been an excellent horror movie.

In reality this is probably 3/10, but I give the movie a few extra points due to what I mention above. I sort of recommend, but if so you cannot miss the post credit scene.

A terrible mix of torture porn, necrophilia, bad acting and a really bad LSD trip.

Way too predictable a story, poor characters and editing.

Baffled as to how and why it was made.

I'm a simple man with simple tastes. I love me a good exploitation movie. The premise really piqued my interest. This movie was god awful.

It had some cool concepts like weird drugs and a secret organization, but it never really explained any of it. The process of brainwashing the woman was poorly executed and bland. The r@pe scenes were lackluster and uninspired. I've never seen a r@pe scene where both actors just looked bored. I know I sure was. The antagonists were amusingly over the top, but the schtick got old long before the closing credits. There are a couple of good gore scenes, but they aren't worth sitting through this movie. The lead actress was attractive, but not worth sitting through this movie. Someone gave me 1 million dollars, but it wasn't worth sitting through this movie.

I almost quit watching about an hour in. I wish I had, because there was another 42 minutes after that. This movie was a mess. This movie was boring. This movie was bad, but not in a "so bad it's good way". It was just bad. A truly horrific t0rture scene would have been if the bad guys tied up the woman and made her watch this movie.

I sat down to watch the 2021 horror/thriller "Girl Next" from writers Zeph E. Daniel and Michael Muscal without ever having heard about the movie. But I must say that the movie's cover/poster seemed interesting, and of course the fact that the the movie was a horror movie that I hadn't already seen made me want to watch it as well.

Well, I gave it a shot, and made it about halfway through, then I just gave up out of sheer and utter boredom. Man, this movie was a swing and a miss from director Larry Wade Carrell. It felt like an art project gone wrong, and as if you were tripping on a bad batch of mushrooms while watching it.

The storyline told in "Girl Next" certainly had pontential, I will say that much, but it quickly fell to the ground and never recovered, as writers Zeph E. Daniel and Michael Muscal took the story into some kind of psychadelic rollercoaster ride.

The acting in the movie was actually fair enough, despite the fact that the actors and actresses virtually had nothing solid or wholehearted to work with. Marcus Jean Pirae (playing Heinrich) and Paula Marcenaro Solinger (playing Misha) carried the movie well enough with their performances.

"Girl Next" fell short of providing me with much of any enjoyment or entertainment. And I wasn't fan of that whole pseudo-drug vision that the movie had going on.

My rating of "Girl Next" lands on a mere three out of ten stars.

This could have been a great film. The problem is that it tried way too hard to make itself look smart and psychedelic. It was like watching a freshman book report. The student thinks they are so clever and groundbreaking, but are actually amateurish. The acting was very good, however. I will give it that. And the concept was good. But it tried way too hard.