The Grinn

I think they must of spent all their budget on a strobe machine, because it was used a lot. In places it made no sense, to the point it was unwatchable. Even from the start they are pointlessly there. Which over use ruins the effectiveness of any effect.

Like if he gets part of a memory back, it's just filled with strobes for some reason.

But, also the budget didn't seem to be used any where else. Like some of the actors were kind of okay, but overall they were all forgetable. Most of film that I did watch was also boring, and very forgetable. Super natural stuff, where???

I wish I got back the time I spent giving this a chance.

2017's 'The Grinn' did intrigue me first hearing of it, when it appeared in my recommended for you section. This was when reviewing another low-budget horror recently as part of one of my many completest quests. The concept was pretty great and could have been quite creative and the cover looked very creepy.

'The Grinn' didn't fully live up to its potential, but it doesn't in any way squander it. To me, and everybody else here, 'The Grinn' does quite well with it, and of my recent low budget viewings it is definitely one of the best of them. Not mind-blowingly great, but there are definitely far worse films, at least 'The Grinn' didn't insult my intelligence or make me regret even watching it. It is uneven perhaps and the low budget does show, but it is creepy, entertaining and engaging and tries to put its own twist on something that sounds very familiar.

Found the villain in personality and how he looked to be unnerving, and the male cast fare quite reasonably. The titular character being especially note-worthy, no over-compensating or lumbering along. The setting and lighting evoke some eeriness and the early parts sees a protagonist that is worth investing in, there have been far worse cases of bland or annoying characters behaving illogically.

Found 'The Grinn' to have some tension and suspense, a few surprising moments and enough moments of creepiness and unsettlement. It does maintain a lot of interest, with some decent pacing and with a sense of what it was trying to be and who to aim the film at.

Not that 'The Grinn' is perfect. It isn't. It does get off to a slightly slow and ordinary start and the tension, suspense and creepiness actually could have been more.

A lot of the dialogue is rather cheesy, if not without its smart moments, and saying that the female leads are subpar is putting it politely, their worst moments painful. Don't expect much depth of characterisation, there is not enough of that with the titular character by far being the most interesting.

Overall, better than expected. 6/10 Bethany Cox

The concept was okay. Done with better backing it could have been great. The actor playing Vance hopefully doesn't act as a full time job and has a career to fall back on. The actress playing Vera seemed very stale and unimpressive. Diana was acted possibly the best here but that doesn't mean good. The set up for the ending just seemed to drag on and this film could have been half an hour shorter and marketed as a student indy film and would have been better. The best acting comes from the baby who had no real acting skill, so it was an even playing field.

Ever wanted to watch a dude stumble around an apartment, tripping over the furniture while obstinately refusing to close his mouth? Of course you haven't. Some of the other reviewers have called this film's plot and twist "smart." I called the twist from literally the first 5 minutes. It's laughably obvious if you're even mildly familiar with horror movies and games.

If you're anything like me, you love watching "so bad it's good" movies. Sorry to disappoint, but "the Grinn" only bored me to tears. The only tension I felt was my struggle not to fall asleep, the only suspense was in regard to whether or not I'd turn off the film and have a more fulfilling evening watching some paint dry.

As a final note, the Grinn committed one of the most dire sins a low-budget film can; featuring some lame rock song that the director's college roommate wrote. Truly the benchmark that every forgettable straight-to-streaming movie aspires to.

When I started watching The Grinn I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, I admit. We are flooded nowadays by expensive but poorly executed, badly written movies of all genres, so sometimes finding a good movie with an interesting story might seem like a challenge. Luckily The Grinn did not disappoint me. Though low budget it focuses strongly on the story and its character, and through that it delivers an experience that a combination of well written script,an interesting story and good film directing should give. Would recommend it to those who expect more from a good movie than just high tech special effects with boring story behind it.