Stoker Hills

I created an account just to write this. Never reviewed a movie on imdb before.

Went in not expecting anything, but I was VERY pleasantly surprised!!

I really enjoyed this film and I think that you will, too.

Don't sleep on this one and give it a shot if you can.

Here we have a nice b movie with lots of x-files, Seven, Silence of the lamb thriller vibes - parts are in found footage style but not most of it, just wanted to let you know. It's not as professional as those movies mentioned of course but it has mood and dark suspense so I enjoyed it. Acting is surprisingly (I've seen a lot of b movies lately) good. I'm not sure why some complain about the story, I felt understood it even if everything was not spelled out - now for the pacing and atmosphere, this is a matter of taste, there's PLENTY dark corridors, woods and scary abandoned buildings, so if you're into that stuff you probably won't complain. It has its share of murders and blood, be warned. There's some character development, just a little tongue in cheek, which is fine.

If you can endure the first 15 minutes of found footage material without getting seasick (or irritated), and you don't mind a farfetched and illogical story, you'll see that it's not all bad. At least the gore and violence are well done, and the premise (some students try to make a movie, when in the process their girlfriend is abducted by what turns out to be a psychopathic mass murderer) starts out as fairly original.

Biggest problem is (apart from the story), that the pace at several times sags, due to too many too long scenes and way too much talking, especially by the two detectives, who curiously enough behave, in spite of all their expressed urgency, as tired sleepwalkers, forever pondering and puzzling and deliberating. Another problem are the scenes with the villain, we endlessly see the main characters tied up in their chairs, and the villain walking in and out on them without ever saying a word. This way he never becomes a real person with understandable motives. In fact, apart from the start and the end of the movie, it's all rather uneventful and on the brink of tedious.

The whole thing impresses as a well meant try by film academy students, which probably has been the deliberate aim of the director, when we see the very last scene with the (at least to me!) surprising twist. Even so, the result is as you might expect of such a try: sympathetic but hardly adequate.

ALL of the dialogue was nonsense. I wanted to tell every character to just SHUTUP!

It was worse than those horror movies when the characters argue the whole time. More like watching a bad worldstar video. With repetitive phrases like "Go! Go! Go! There there there! The door! The door! Go, go, go, go!" and it goes on the whole movie.

But the whole time they are trying to be quiet and stay hidden but the killer keeps finding them because they talk so much.

The dialogue is less entertaining than watching a livestream of an airheaded gamer who has no subscribers and just blurts out random thoughts but every thought is vapid and shallow.

Well I went into this not knowing what I was about to see but I found myself enthralled in the suspense. It kept me engaged and wanting to know the outcome. It was surprisingly well done, it had some throwback acting to the days of detective murder mysteries from the detectives but there was strong convincing acting in it as well mainly from the victims. Had some tongue and cheek moments regarding running out of time that made me smirk but well played in my opinion. I'd say to any who is reading this, I believe you will enjoy this and be gripping something along the way. Ending is fairly climactic with a twist. So kudos for that intelligent idea. Feelings may be mixed because of it depending on your taste but still worth a conversation after for a bit. And possibly and no way or ya got to be kidding me to follow while having a smile like you just been had or had you? ;) as I said solid B movie, way better than some I've seen for sure. Worth a watch. I found it to be creative and clever with a mix of several unique ideas.