Sob o Domínio do Mal

Grimmfest 2021

Hard to comment without giving it away and honestly, you deserve to go into this one cold and experience it yourself.

For the most part, an urban spin on a Daphne DuMaurier style gaslighting tale. We can tell things ain't right but we don't know why or how.

The three leads play it straight - Ashmore and the stunning Ms Lando are more than watchable throughout.

Then, it careers into its final act and it has to be seen to be believed...

Critic proof - a sure fire future cult classic.

Let's get the overall review out of the way: this movie is lamer than a three legged horse in the Kentucky Derby. It's slow, it's dull, and it's big twist is as dumb as dirt. At least I think. It's hard to tell if it was as bad as I thought because it is nearly impossible to hear some of the dialogue. I'm sure it was a conscious decision to have a muted, echoey quality to the dialogue while background music plays at the same volume. Why? Who knows. I'm not sure it would make a difference. Good cast, bad script, daytime television level directing, and local public access sound make this one a hard pass.

RATED 6/10 Language: English

The acting was so pathetic and the making is so average. Looks like total miscast except the maid and sister. The first half is slow and testing your patience. The second half is decent and the climax is good. Just because of the conclusion, I rated bit higher, else it is easily avoidable one.

S. D. T in this case stands for

Slow moving - this movie is moving very slowly, you will get at least 30 mins.. waiting for things to happen, well finally happens at almost at the end. I will not tell you want it is ...

Dumb - I found it very dumb in many ways, acting, plots and display. This film is made in 21 century, and old dial phone and typewriter?!! Come on, even it may signify something (spoiler - but you guess), but it is way too dumb to put those things there in this age of time.

Twist - Yes, there is a twist at the end, but then overall, it is not that great.

I gave it a 5 because of this twist, but acting and the plots are not that great. It could be done better.

A woman visits her parents' house to celebrate the retaking of their marriage vows, but finds that's not the only ritual on the menu.

Trippy, fractured story with stylish symbolism that kept me on my toes to the end. The opening shot carefully lays a trail of clues - not least a word in capital letters - so I knew to keep questioning what was coming at me. There's plenty of mirror-trickery to raise doubts not just about what's going on but also about who the heroine really is, and the broken up sequence of events keeps everything in confusion.

The risk with trippy story-telling is that it leaves the audience stumbling about until we stub our toe and say, Enough. So I was kinda fatigued by the halfway mark, but then the prospect of a dramatic set-piece was introduced and my attention perked up. Was it worth it? Well, I think the end broke off prematurely, probably because the writer had no good idea what the whole thing was about. I certainly didn't get the sense of all the mysteries in the puzzle locking together to reveal a genuine human experience.

The performances are good, and the editing keeps up a decent pace. The camera work dwelled a lot on mirrors, and was otherwise unremarkable. The original score caught my attention with the accordions in the dance scene, but was never switched off and proved distracting in several scenes where the actors were face to face.

It is an unusual take on this sub-genre of horror, but not as engaging as Grace (2014), and I feel the stilted mood of the set-piece reflected a lack of heart in the writing.

Overall: Intriguing but not so engaging.