Cruel

I did not like this movie at all, I think there could have been written a lot better. It was so dark that I was wanting to give a flashlight to the actors. How can you watch something when you can't even see it? On to the next movie.

Dear lord Ben has the most dreary voice in history Jo overacts The mother is a cow Don't waste your time

I think too often people confuse horror with slasher. Now, I am all about a nice Friday the 13th marathon, or the original Texas Chainsaw massacre, or even Halloween (1978 version), but these are not so much horror as slasher films. I think the distinction is important before one even begins to determine how they feel about a movie. All that being said, I'm still not sure this fits into the horror category. There are a few scary moments and a lot of drama but for a low budget movie, this has some very solid moments. I would have preferred less talking and more action but overall I liked the story.

I get that some people hate it; somebody always hates a film, song, TV show, play, book etc, while others think it is great. This is definitely not great but it is certainly worth a watch if you have the right expectations.

After being forced back home to her parents' house, a troubled teen finds her life turned upside down when her babysitting charge falls prey to a vicious serial killer dressed as an ice-cream vendor and must find a way of catching him to stop his rampage.

For the most part this one here wasn't all that impressive of a horror film. Most of the film's problems stem from the utterly bland and lifeless pace throughout the first half to this one, opting far more for a Drama feel than a terrifying feel. There's a lot of talk about how her life is falling apart with the break-up and returning back to live with them and the strange encounters with the ice-cream seller all tend to get featured so heavily that there's no chance for it to develop into a rather chilling story. Though it comes off a little better with the abduction angle, even still it's not so much about that as it is about the tragedy of the situation which takes center stage over the proceedings, and there's not a whole lot of action brought up by this in the meantime. Other factors here with the films' rather bland and lifeless pace are all stemming from the lack of a body count that don't offer up anything that makes for a more horror-based effort by detailing the lengths they go to with the investigation and keeping it away from the stalking they carry through together where they gradually come to believe the identity of the killer, the factor of not even getting anything remotely close to stalking or kills with the holding hostage angle that he employs against her while the the lazy search carries on to make this one feel quite bland overall. Likewise, without the body count there's very little to fear here about the killer who's quite lame in terms of being physically unscary but also with how their interactions have very little to generate any kind of actual fear with what happens. It all makes for a wholly disappointing experience overall with quite a few flaws holding this one down. There's only a few small areas that work with this one, from the actual concept here that concerns him targeting her and how he comes to the family which is quite chilling and more than appropriate in how to build that kind of story. Several of the later scenes here from how he has her trapped and kept at the house are pretty chilling as her continual escape attempts are the only part of this one that really gets any kind of action involved throughout here along with the strong final confrontation also getting some action involved as well. Otherwise, this one is more flawed than anything.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Violence and intense themes of children- in-jeopardy.

Robert Henderson's "Kruel" is a psychological thriller with hints of horror in one intensely drawn nightmare. Unfortunately though, It is a horror film without any horror. Yeah I know that that statement is argumentative considering the subject matter, but I didn't feel that "Kruel" had enough horror genre elements to be classified as a real horror movie.

Now the story that Henderson has devised is captivating and deals with some very horrific realities of society. There is an antagonist that is creepy and nightmarish as all get out. The acting and direction that Robert Henderson takes with this film is stellar on almost all levels of story telling. It is dark, emotional, and often insanely intense. However the story stays in very dramatic, suspense thriller areas where character development and scene building reach a fevered pitch but never deliver any real heat.

The special effects aren't really present in this "horror" film through 98% of the movie. It is all melodrama, high emotion dialog, and really cool scene transitions that combine with some very retro horror designed sounds. Only there is no real horror present. Everything stays suggestive or just not approached. Which sucks because had Henderson thrown in some noticeable giallo styled gore or graphic violence, then "Kruel" could have been a breakaway hit. Unfortunately everything stays pretty PG-13. There is one singe boob shot and one moment of gushing blood, but that comes "too little too late" for me personally.

Overall I have to say that "Kruel" is going to disappoint almost all horror fans going into this film expecting anything other than a really emotional, dramatic story. As I have said-there is no real horror here. The subject matter is horrific, the drama is intense and the story is well written. It is all just a bit "Lifetime Movie Network Adjacent". I got the same experience while watching this film that I have gotten mistakenly watching a few of the church produced "horror films". Still the acting and story are pretty nice. Just wish that the film was marketed as psychological thriller or dramatic thriller, instead of Horror thriller.