A Hard Place

I tend to be little more kind to indie stuff. Really I'd probably put it at 6 or 7 tops. But I know movies like this always end up getting hit by a bunch of unfair one's by incels.

Anyway, an, A Hard Place was wild. It's got monsters, action, and just enough heart to keep you locked in. The story pulls you in quick-some bad guys get caught up in something way bigger than them, and it goes off the rails in the best way. The acting was solid, the creatures looked awesome, and it didn't feel like some cheap movie. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect, but I had a blast watching it. Definitely worth checking out.

I dabbled in the indie film scene in the last 2 months and Jason Horton is someone I followed closely. Extremely passionate man, with a passionate crew, and a master at crowdfunding. His perseverance and dedication to his craft is extremely admirable. I'm thrilled to be associated in the indie film scene even though it is minimal. Therefore, my opinion of this movie is coming from the perspective of a fan with a passion for the dreamers of this caliber in this industry. As such, I try to keep those things in mind since this is indeed an indie film with budgets nowhere near bigger films even though those bigger ones can flop as well. Usually, it seems to me, the independent films that seemed generic aren't because of a lack of passion, it's just a lack of budget and the actors and skill sets of certain production team members. Having said that, let's dive in.

The movie of course is about a group of people in a situation where they need to get somewhere to lay low for a bit. That somewhere just happens to be in a secluded area near a wintry mountain in a place where two different evils collide.

The premise of the movie sounds fantastic! There's a certain type of creature in the day that comes out, a certain type of creature at night, and it just so happens this group of people find themselves, of all the days that there could have been, on a day where those two types of creatures meet and battle.

From a production standpoint, I think the cinematography is excellent, the locations are great for what they want to accomplish, the sound team did a great job, the script was decent enough, the pacing was really well done as most Indie movies tend to have dry spots that are tough for me to sit through and sometimes I have to forward through them a little bit. The ideas in the story were pretty cool and I thought original, and there was even some pretty cool setups that I wasn't sure what to expect which is always a solid Plus for me. I love some unpredictability!

I think the movie starts out very fun, with some purposeful cheesiness that switches gears to a more serious tone. I think when it's switched to the serious tone there wasn't enough setup of what was going on nor character development for me to care much about the characters. Perhaps it was meant to just jump into a little mystery and get to the creepiness of the story. I think this was one of the downfalls of it being a more awesome movie. The actors that played this group of people didn't seem very convincing to me either except one or two of them. This is usually what I find in the case of independent movies. Not that they're bad, just for me I wasn't convinced. I'm not sure why but it seems lately the female actors tend to be more convincing than the male ones from the few movies I've seen.

But it does pick up pace to get to an isolated location which later was revealed to be a smart story choice. I remember reading about how some of the reviews on this movie might be AI reviews because of the mention of desert scenes or scenarios or locations or whatnot. This is definitely not a desert setting. There are trees, fields of grass, thick snow covering the road, some patches of snow here and there. And if you received behind the scenes or even read about it you'll hear about some of the struggles they had keeping warm on set. Nice try AI and those of you who can't bother to summon the energy to give a real review. These are dreamers for crying out loud, show a little more respect.

The things I enjoyed most about the movie was the pacing that didn't keep me bored, the fantastic looking daytime creatures, the creepy nature of the night creatures, the bit of cheesiness here and there on purpose, some of the funny characters when the main ones get to the compound, and some of the scenarios. I enjoy movies more when I do not know what's actually going to happen. This movie has a bit of mystery and thankfully some suspense to boot! I think the most well-acted character was "Mama". But there were enough characters mixed in there to make me believe what was going on. Some funny and charming ones too. And I think this whole compound area, and all the people in it, is charming enough for this movie to stand out and maintain relevance longer than it may have otherwise had. It was a nice twist, the way the writers decided to have the personalities and characters on the compound.

What was a bit of a miss for me was that some of the other actors weren't convincing. Also, the big battle scene between the two creatures was a little lackluster. It really wasn't that intense, for the most part. Of course it is an indie movie, but I have seen better and more engaging battles in low budgets. It was the only time in the movie that I felt like fast forwarding a little bit. And another drawback from me was some of the story. Because of where we meet our main group at the beginning of the movie was not a believably acted situation and me having no real connection with the characters made me not really care too much what happened at the end. But it was definitely a fun watch, had some good chuckles, fantastic story idea, some of the characters were played very well and enough unpredictability that I feel like the score of seven is well deserved. If you like independent movies, especially dealing with this idea, there's no way you should miss this movie. There is enough there to keep you invested and I don't feel like yiuy would think it was a waste of time by the time the credits rolled. It hits way more than it misses and it was so fun to see how it wound up. As a fan in the Indie scene itself, I of course, encourage you to check it out. As someone who just likes Independent films, especially like this, I encourage you to check it out. If you don't like watching beyond 10 million dollar or more budgets, well you still probably would like a few things here.

This movie was made by passionate fans of the supernatural, creatures, some gore, some suspense, some mystery and thrills, a little campiness and cheesiness, and a lot of fun and that's exactly what you get here, plus some!

A Hard Place is a fun Horror movie with real practical effects and flourishes of drama and comedy. The cast and crew did a great job delivering this indie film. Rachel Amanda Bryant for example did a fantastic job portraying a member of these criminal group who still had a moral compass. Fun twists and turns are in the narrative mixed with the action and horror elements.

The creature effects were good considering this is an indie film. It had some unique story elements as well. It was great to see Bai Ling in her role kicking but and delivering one liners. A hard place had a strong opening and closing as well.

I admit that sometimes I will search out a bad movie with the intention of finding a new guilty pleasure. I saw this on Tubi and it sounded odd enough to possibly be one. Boy was I wrong. This is just awful. From the bad country accents of the horrible actors, the laughable fake smoke from the guns, the awkward shots of the old fat guy who never speaks ( who also for some reason wears shoe polish under his eyes???), the stilted dialogue, it's just all around terrible. Attempts at random humor fall flat (the terribly delivered "what in the whatever state we're in chainsaw massacre" and "what in the horror movie" spoken by the same godawful actor), and the ill fitting wig of Lynn Lowry that looks like it's about to slide off at any second are just as awful. It's also a bad sign that the worst actor is the one who never speaks a line, just gives hilariously bad attempts at intimidating looks from his shoe polish streaked eyes. Even the usually dependable Felissa Rose is terrible in this. And what was with the weird sex education film that went on forever and was ultra cringeworthy? Were these friends of the writer/director? Just awkward and weird. The only positives are the creative lighting and some on the camerawork. Just please skip this and thank me later. PS: you want to know how the rating is so high on this? Click on the reviewer names and look at their rating history. Notice any patterns? Yeah, it's either their first review or they're all for projects they themselves are connected to.

I very rarely take time to review a movie. As the only other honest reviewer said, everyone in the cast must have rated this stinker 8+ I generally like a good B movie, or campy one..not this one. Sorry to be a downer.

Cinematography and location are good. The dialog & actors are cheesy. The premise is ok, just no one can salvage it.

Gory enough...if you can stomach the very poor dialogue. Watch the preview...if you like what you see, by all means, watch it..if not, time to move on to something with a bit more polish and class. This one just does not check many good boxes.

If it's meant to be bad, they succeeded...