Adalynn

This movie deals with mental health issues and uncomfortable parental tragedies that could be triggering for some viewers. Otherwise, "Adalynn" is a layered descent into madness that aims to put the viewer in the title character's shoes. Some may be put off by this, but the director really captures and illustrates the frustration and confusion Adalynn faces throughout the film.

At times, it's uncomfortable. Other times, it can be heartbreaking. Some parts may intentionally squeeze a chuckle out of you. But if there's a takeaway from this film, it's that it really calls out the real-life taboos about postpartum struggles mothers often feel like they need to keep secret.

This underrated thriller may divide audiences, but it's worth a watch nonetheless.

It seems a little underrated, honestly. I would say it probably should have had a description that even sort of touched on how potentially triggering to a select kind of audience it would be potentially problematic for, but I get the feeling that was kind of the point. The description was vague, there isn't a lot of context given unless you watch it. If you have the hyper vigilance like I do, it will all make sense along the way. There are details super small for support which is actually brilliant. So many tiny clues, though if you miss them? You're not lost without them.

I knew what the end would be to some degree, which is almost always the case with movies/shows, though still found myself a bit off at the point. I knew it was coming, fully expected the outcome, and yet it still felt like I needed to make sure I was right. That should be skipped by a larger, though still not huge, group of people who might be triggered by it. With good reason, I might add. Think serious mental health issues, without giving the whole thing away. If this is a sensitive subject for you? Please skip the movie. Though there is something to be said about the portion that speaks to bringing awareness and the idea that shame forces a masking behavior. It's deeper than it comes across.

It's definitely not rated according to the brain of someone that appreciates the layers of the story more than the budget. And frankly? It probably wouldn't have been so worth the watch with a higher budget. If you can bring yourself to watch it, you'll understand why. That's not to say movies with a similar plot line haven't been made, as with almost every other movie you will see. Obviously the horror concept relates to a very real occurrence in mental health which a million other movies could touch on as well. The likelihood of understanding the mental illness exists, has been part of true crime stories with a different plot line, and even possibly knowing someone who has the symptoms in real life? That's the horror aspect. That's the root. Which is kind of a brilliant way to label horror as an avid horror movie watcher. It's a different take than a slasher or paranormal thriller. I would recommend for my reasons, but again? Not for all.

Horror is an excellent way of exploring things like mental health (Saint Maud), Grief (the babbadook) and in this case post-partum depression. It is something people don't talk about much, and was a great candidate for a film.

Unfortunately it didn't work. At all. The lead actress tried but the script was incredibly clunky and contained some of the worst dialog I have listened too in a long time. It was very stilted, very un-natural, and required the actors to over-act to compensate. Filled with cliches, and the entire thing felt mechanical, like the writer had tried to study humans from a distance through bad TV but had never actually had a relationship with one. You could basically see the calculations he/she had made about each line. The exposition was sloppy, and we constantly learn about the inner mental state of the character because she verbally tells us (through the gimmick of writing in a journal), which is a cop out to give information we should have been able to glean from the acting and visuals (but couldn't because there wasn't space for that).

I don't understand on any level why the writer decided to make the husband a paediatrician, it serves to make every subsequent decision make zero sense at all. He is a qualified medical doctor who knows that his wife has a serious pre-existing mental health condition, is off her medication, the danger that poses, and also knows full well the additional mental health risk from postpartum depression. A conference of other paediatricians is basically the most forgiving event you can imagine in terms of understanding why he would need to bow out. He was also stupid to commit to it, even if the baby arrived slightly earlier than expected. His reaction to her phone call admitting problems was just ridiculous

She then receives medical advice from her doctor, in a conversation where she admits having serious trouble and absolutely 100% shows diagnosable signs of postpartum depression, and despite knowing that she is alone and has a history of mental health problems he does nothing. This again makes even less sense when you think about the fact that the husband is a doctor, it is highly unlikely that he doesn't know her doctor at least professionally because he would have recommended him). On top of that again the dialogue just isn't like any medical conversation anyone has ever had with their doctor, the tone was wrong, the logic of the conversation was wrong, everything about it was wrong.

Even the baby was terrible, there are scenes where the baby is crying and coughing after feeding and you can see very very clearly that it is completely inanimate plastic baby, not even being moved by the actor. They choose silly camera angles to try and disguise it (but then cut to angles that make it obvious thus defeating the point).

The score was also amateurish, the logic seemed to be "something significant has happened, so let's accent it with a loud noise!". The highly discordant noises came in far too early and there is no particular build up in intensity, which there absolutely needed to be.

It was a terrible shame to lump the actors with this film. The script should never ever have been selected for production.

Lots of the other reviews here are from people saying it is too slow, or not "horror" enough. Personally I enjoy both jump scare and gory horror as well as interesting psychological horror, the pacing did not bother me at all. It just isn't a good psychological horror, or drama ,or anything else. Do not allow whomever wrote this script to waste your evening.

"Adalynn" is a really well done psychological thriller that is engrossing, anchored by a very strong performance by Sydney Carvill as the titular character.

"Adalynn" begins as Adalynn and her husband Bill return from the hospital with their new infant daughter. We learn right away (in consistent voice-overs by Adalynn and her actions) that Adalynn has some mental issues which seem to be getting acerbated due to post-partum issues. She convinces her husband to go to a conference, saying that she can take care of their new child, and he reluctantly does. But alone, Adalynn begins to descend more and more into instability which may be made worse by events, either real or imagined...

One of the things I like about "Adalynn" is that it doesn't try to trick us -- it puts its cards on the table pretty early on and while it takes some zigs and zags to get the ending, it's never dishonest. And that makes it far more intriguing and disturbing than it might have been otherwise. The performances are uniformly excellent, especially (as I mentioned previously) Ms. Carvill, who is on screen for almost the entire film. And I really like that the movie actually fully explains what's going on at the end.

Pretty strong recommendation on this one from me.

I figured the outcome of this not even remotely original movie very early on. Let just say that boxes that came in the mail (or I guess from Amazon since it's this time and age) were a give away. I guess they figured, "who the heck will remember the first one, probably those people are all dead by now." Well considering that one of my doctorates was in psychology, I did remember. I was surprised that the husband was actually the husband, since this one did say he was the husband. I guess that made it an original. LOL This subject has been used multiple times in movies. If you are younger than me by a lot you may like it.