Bingo Hell

But it just never got here. It caught my interest from the start. The opening was bouncy, with intrigue. Then it opened up too many paths to follow. Then it got soapy and peachy.

Nothing worked after that.

This was super irritating. The voice editing is so annoying. There is so much shouting but not in like a meaningful way. It just sort of devolves into a screaming match with the name of the town it takes place in repeated every other sentence.

Bad acting bad plot bad pacing bad editing bad movie.

No offense to any of the actors in this (mostly at least decent performances), but Richard Brake takes the cake. And if a movie is only as good as its villain ... well this should be way better rated by me I reckon.

That aside (and I have no idea if there is a novel/book this is based on), the movie works on a certain level even if it does seem to be stuck in first gear for most of the running time. So yes there are pacing issues and the social commentary may be hammered home too much ... still you can have some fun with this ... certainly with Richard Brake ... did I mention how great he is in this? Well he is an awesome actor so there is that ...

Bingo Hell did a few things really well, but most things weren't great, and it was disappointing. Despite the 4/10, I am glad I watched it. I can't recommend it, but I think it might be worth the watch as long as you keep your expectations low and want to enjoy the visuals and a few great scenes.

What went right?

Basically every scene with Richard Brake (Mr. Big) was insane, and great to watch! His smile, his laughter, the lighting, and camera work were all fantastic. It was a spectacle worth watching and literally the only reason I liked the movie. Unfortunately you don't get a ton of him on screen.

The production quality was fantastic: everything was clearly lit even in dark scenes, all the sound was balanced and I never needed to adjust it. The camera work was a little *too* ambitious, sometimes dizzying, but they accomplished some really awesome shots so it was worth it. I hope to see some similar stuff, just reigned in a bit. They do a lot of lighting effects that I thought worked pretty well, which is an easy thing to mess up.

What went wrong?

Story-wise, they had an ok idea, but just didn't make it interesting enough or put the pieces together clearly. I thought I'd love the tough old-lady main character from the trailer, but she just felt awkward to me the whole movie. I didn't like most of her dialogue either, but luckily some of the other characters were pretty entertaining when they got screen time.

They didn't do enough with the actual horror elements, but when they used them they were quite good. They had some really crazy death scenes, but didn't do enough of them. The logic for the demon didn't really hold up in some regards, and there was almost no build up. It seemed like they couldn't decide exactly what the demon should be and it made it clunky.

It escalated too quickly and it was a ton of wasted opportunity since they didn't spend time on the most interesting parts. They had some mysterious details (like slime) that they set up and never used again. A big chunk of the movie started to get old as it drifted into mediocre-drama territory for too long.