Cynthia

I am going to give this a 9 out of 10. First of all I am a fan of Scout Taylor Compton, Sid Haig, & Bill Moseley. I'm not a fan of babies or children I admit so I didn't expect to care for this. However, I loved it. Right from the beginning to the very end I was hooked. It was much better than I was expecting. There's not too much gushy baby crap to bog it down. It really cuts to the punch of the comedy and horror value fairly nicely and well paced. Scout Taylor Compton was a great lead and this is one of her best new roles where she had a character who was a little more fleshed out than she has had in a little while now in horror and it was great to see her walk the tight rope of comedy satire and horror. It's a genre hybrid she is a natural in. I loved the satire of the script, it gave you those dry bitter snicker kind of giggles where you know the writer's sense of humor is vivid and wild yet somewhat restrained so that it's compelling right off the bat. The acting was much better than I was expecting, with not too many weak links. You could tell this was a passion project and not just bad actors reading lines. It was a blessing that they mostly used practical creature effects for the title character, Cynthia. They did a lot of things right here. It is in the family of horror comedy that you seldom see anymore. It is FOR fans of horror comedy. It is not confused with it's genre, and I'm glad the film was self aware enough to walk that tight line. It reminded me a bit of films in the vein of Basket Case (1982) It's Alive (1974), Bad Milo (2013). I wish there had been more gore. There was certainly gore to be had, but had there been more over the top, it would have bounced this film to a whole new level in the genre. All in all a treat for fans of horror comedy or fans of the acting/directing trio involved. The end was a bit shaky and loses a little bit of that control it has in the beginning but not enough to damper the experience. I just wish the music during the cynthia bedroom scene was more audible and over the top in either an overly jokey terrifying way or a silly quirky way. And the Cynthia sound effects needed a bit more character, screeches or growls to make it all more intense. In other words i was expecting the end to become over the top madness, gore etc like the first half of the film was headed and it was slightly underwhelming instead, though still enjoyable. It would be a shame if the horror community doesn't grab a hold of this and give it the recognition it deserves, so that is why I felt compelled to write a review. I actually hope there's a sequel lol! And if the director or writer is reading this, take it all over the top. Let Cynthia evolve in to the agile fierce killing machine she deserves to be. Let this be more over the top like Peter Jackson's Dead Alive baby scenes. Lol. You got this.