Untitled Horror Movie

8/10 - between all the references that made me chuckle, the cool and fresh premise, and genuinely good acting, I was in a way surprised and very much delighted in this film that highlights some creativity in such a dark and unconventional time for the world.

What a pleasant surprise, but the movie has fundamental issues.

There was no background given whatsoever to the spell. There could have been 20-30 minutes allotted towards the spell's origins in Hollywood (perhaps a death of some other actor?), some other cities in the USA, or the entire world. There was so much room to use the spell for actual comedy instead of mashing comedy and tragedy and making tragedy look like comedy. With that being said, a huge lack of empathy for the unexpected death of Chrissy ruined it for me. I get that this is a horror comedy, but it's also a horror dramedy at the same time. Some of the actors knew Chrissy throughout their entire career. How do they go from showing so much emotion and fear when she was walking around her apartment to "she died due to an accident, let's go meet Bobbie?" - this was NOT funny.

All the nauseating camera motion of a found footage film in the making of a found footage film. Top that off with a reminder of all the Zoom meetings I've been forced to sit through during a pandemic, and I just couldn't like this film.

The character build up was thin, but that was a godsend because the characters were shallow. I didn't want to know any more about them than what was presented early on.

The concept is something everyone who owns a phone has thought of. It's only the most narcissistic of us that would even try to pull it off. It dates back to 2008 when "SMS Sugar Man" was shot entirely on an iPhone.

I'm sure there's an audience for this film, but I found myself browsing Reddit half way through.

The untitled horror movie stood out for its originality, cleverly twisting familiar tropes into something that felt fresh and unpredictable. It struck a smart balance between tension and humor, using just enough wit to keep things entertaining without undercutting the scares. However, the film's impact was dulled slightly by its generic music, which leaned too heavily on stock suspense cues and failed to elevate key moments or add a distinct auditory identity. With a more inventive score, it could have been even more memorable.

Despite its musical shortcomings, the film's inventive plot and sharp tonal shifts kept it engaging from start to finish.

With the tag line "You'll die laughing" and the movie labelled as a horror-comedy, you would think that I would have laughed, even once. I mean, maybe that's the point, if you laugh you die? So the movie goes out of its way not to make you laugh? Not sure. If you're thinking maybe it's just me, ask yourself just how funny the title "Untitled Horror Movie" is, and then ask yourself how funny the producers, or whoever, thought the movie title would be.

Essentially, a group of actors find out their tv show is being cancelled. They decide to make a horror movie instead, and read some sort of summoning they found on reddit. Of course, this actually summons a dark spirit which tries to kill them. Or at least freak them out. There is zero clarity on what the spirit really wants, whether the pendant is actually important, why it is attacking them, etc. This movie is just a bunch of scenes thrown together on purpose, by someone who thought that their laziness would be a good idea. Take, for example, how rather than each character getting their own scene in their horror movie, all the actors just perform the same scene. Did anyone think it would not be boring to watch the same scene performed by 5 different actors? The more and more I think about this movie, the more convinced I am that it was trying not to be funny on purpose. Surely.

Anyway, there are two Aussie actors in this movie, which is cool. It would have been nice if they were in a better movie, but whatever. It is what it is.