The Mistress

I almost didn't watch this because of the laughably low rating and bad reviews. But I thought I'd try it out, and if it was horrible I'd just turn it off.

I must have watched a different film than others. I found it to be really interesting, engaging, and creepy (even though I suspected the "twist" long before it was revealed). The mood and music were very Hitchockian. The sets and cinematography were very well done. I even appreciated how the title sequence had a kind of 70s/early 80s/vintage vibe to it that matched the warm SoCal setting.

There were a couple of scenes here and there that were a little too dark (like, I couldn't make out what I was looking at), but not enough to make me feel frustrated with the movie overall.

And again, even though I was pretty sure there was going to be a twist of some sort, I was interested in everything that was unfolding.

I found the acting to be quite good, too. I mean, not Oscar-level or anything, but certainly good enough that I wasn't rolling my eyes at any time. Even the characters that seemed a little cheesy reminded me of ACTUAL people I know who are a little cheesy, so they still felt believable. (It was NOT "Lifetime movie" style acting in my opinion!)

I'm not sure I would actually rate it a 9/10 -- maybe more like a 7. A good movie but one that I probably won't go around telling everyone to watch. Still, I'm giving it a 9 in the hopes of boosting its overall rating so people don't just skip over it like I almost did, because I DID think it was worth my time to watch.

Honestly, with all the tripe on streaming these days, this one is a LOT better than most! The VERY final scene, in fact, hinted that there might have been yet another layer I missed on the first watching, so I might give this one another go around and who knows... I may start telling everyone to watch it, lol.

The basic story of the movie is really good, couple move into haunted house.....he has had a stalker.....overbearing neighbour.......troubled writer, etc, etc.

John Magaro is excellent as the writer, the interplay between the dreams and real life is good enough and the direction leans heavily on Hitchcock, Giallo and, at times, Kubrick for inspiration.

However the issues come with the execution. The wife of our 'protagonist' is terrible. Absolutely no chemistry with her husband (she may get on well with the furniture as she is that wooden). Several scenes seem to have been created without consideration to the rest of the movie. The wife is angry one minute and cheerful the next, the angry neighbour is angry, errrr.......because? And the pacing is so off it feels like a waltz.....slow, slow, quick quick slow.

Most boring newlyweds move into a unique Victorian house, and yes, you guessed it, it's haunted by boring normcores who conveniently are vintage collectors and costume designers to fit perfectly into the tropes needed for the script.

Oh, we found a plate camera in the attic. Let me go and develop the film in my expensive little cellar and print some unprintable pictures from 1895 for you, you know, I love old crinkets! Wow, I was able to obtain a solid image from the 120 year old plate and look! I wonder who this lady is... And the movie unravels below expectations.

The best characters in the movie were Dawn, her boyfriend, and Rimbaud, the dog. Parker needs to get some backbone and acting classes.

Obviously some money spent on this but shame about the story, script, acting and a million cliches. Almost a film school graduation project.

Cliches abound with old house, cellar with boiler, rocking chair in attic, old letters etc discovered, attractive neighbour, newly weds, the classic coming down the stairs in the middle of the night to discover the old phonograph playing etc the list is unending!

This may have worked as a 20 min short but dragging it out as a,feature was never going to work.

The camera work again is cliched trying to be clever but missing every time. Sorry but dreadful.

I've watched a lot of bad indie horror. Terrible indie horror even. I can tolerate a lot - bad effects, lousy acting, bad dialogue...all forgiveable. Boring, however, is another matter altogether. That brings us to The Mistress, a movie that makes the lamest Lifetime movie seem thrilling and fresh. It would be impossible to include any spoilers in this review as there is virtually nothing to spoil. Even the "big twist" that I'm certain the screenwriter was very proud of is telegraphed for most of the excruciatingly long runtime. I could imagine what sort of horrible torture I would have to be threatened with that could get me to sit through this again.