Slapface

Ambiguous, it lacks something but, overall, a positive experience.

I like the atmosphere created, I like thar it tries to encapuslate so many necessary themes - grief, isolation, sadness, memories, bullying, relationships, family - and I like that is a very dark film unafraid to shock and do the most unexpected things.

Even if I like some grey areas, I think Slapface exaggerates a bit on that, being a bit frustrating at times. This - and the fact that the horror moments aren't really terrifying- doesn't let the film be much more than it is, but it's a strong and meaningful piece of art.

This horror allegory has a unique premise that unfolds in a fresh, realistic way, but the execution is very poor.

The premise is that the boy protagonist has a monster who helps him to deal with his struggles--an animalistic, witchlike ogre who behaves something like a trained attack dog, willing to play along with her companion but always ready to viciously attack. The boy faces numerous struggles--grief, puberty, poverty, bullying--and the impulsive violence manifested by his monster represents the only method he knows for confronting those problems. This is a horror of stunted emotional development. The screenplay, acting, and on-location filming present this premise in a way that is refreshingly free from cliches. There seems to be an autobiographical core breathing life into this film.

Nevertheless, I found it extremely tedious. For a movie that's less than 90 minutes, it seems like quite a slog. Something about the editing and pacing of the film is disorienting in an unintentional way: one scene ends, the next begins, the tone and setting abruptly shifts, and it isn't quite clear how much time has passed in between. Cause and effect become ambiguous, the flow is extremely choppy, and none of that clunkiness seems to contribute anything to the film. The end result is that my husband and I were consistently confused about how the movie's themes were progressing and how the events of the scenes related to each other.

The filmmakers have potential and this film certainly has something meaningful to say, yet I wouldn't recommend trying to sit through it.

Tired of being constantly bullied, a young boy living with his orphaned brother while trying to stay out of trouble ends up encountering a real-life witch in the area and ends up befriending it, forcing him to come to a deadly realization where his loyalties lie when it starts on a bloody rampage.

On the whole, this was a highly enjoyable and chilling effort. One of the finer points to this one is the incredibly strong setup that serves as a reason to generate the central relationship at hand. While cliched, the setup involving the bullied youth who decides to seek solace in areas outside of the accepted norms in the community which causes everyone to worry about him while he ends up developing a macabre friendship with the creature is handled quite well. This goes into the reasons why he's being bullied and how that leads him into contact with the witch as well as the clues that he's been hiding the relationship with the creature from those around him that everyone suspects is the human girl that's hanging around him that gives this part of the film a lot to like. As well, once the witch becomes a prominent part of the film there's some fun to be had with the creatures' stalking and attacks. The first encounter inside the house where it appears in the mirror behind him while attempting to prank the others outside is a genuinely unnerving moment, much like the later ambush on the girlfriend at the house. There's a genuine tension to the way it constantly alerts her to its presence without saying anything and the final payoff is quite satisfying being one of the only jump-scares in the film. Other encounters, including the ambush on the girls in the woods or the hospital appearance, offer up some dark and thrilling action that's a nice setup for the finale where the final confrontation is as emotionally disturbing as it is brutal. These manage to provide this with some enjoyable aspects. That said, there are some minor drawbacks here that hold this down. Among the main flaws here is the fact that the central relationships that it spends so much time honing aren't always the most interesting or enjoyable to see play out. The main relationship we're supposed to be following in the brother meeting up with the new girl from the bar is inherently uninteresting and doesn't make either of them out to be interesting with the constant abuse and fighting that makes them out to be far more dysfunctional than warranted. Likewise, the central triangle with the kids is equally uninteresting, managing to come across with far more curiosity than anything regarding how they're even friends in the first place and making for a highly aggravating experience here. The other issue at play, which is somewhat informed by the previous drawback, is that it takes way too long for the witch to actually do something interesting in here. It spends way too much time here standing around watching him interact with his brother, the crummy lifestyle they lead, or the interactions with the bullies tormenting him before it springs into action to attack those around him. As well, the constant bickering and fighting between the brother and his girlfriend in their relationship just amounts to even more time here that ends up pushing back the rampage until so late in the film that it's quite hard to really care what happens since we're spending all this time on factors that some of the impact is lost. These are really all that hold this one down though.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, intense themes of bullying, child abuse and violence.against-animals.

The actors weren't all that great. The storyline was very sloppy. The "witch" wasn't an IT factor. It was just not a solid film..very sloppy from the jump. Found tiktok more entertaining than the beginning of this film.

The idea for the plot is good but the execution is shockingly amateurish. It fails on most levels. The actor who plays the older brother is really bad and most of the other actors just phone it in. The film becomes preachy and predictable and it even ends with a preachy text telling us how to interpret it and why this film is noble. I kid you not!

I lay most of the blame on the director/writer. There is no consistency in anything here and the plot set ups are lazy and too obvious to blend naturally into the story.

The young brother was however quite good and I liked the hands of the monster.