Bait

Bex and Dawn dream of opening a cafe together. Out of the blue, a generous businessman offers them the funds they need to make that dream a reality. Joy turns to crippling fear when the friends discover a vicious loan shark, who expects repayments or for them to suffer the consequences. Truly frightening and superbly written, this is a morality tale for the 21st century. The film is gritty to say the least with superb performances from the main cast who tackle the grim premise with a reality that's heart-breaking. Burrows beneath your skin from the off, with a sly edit that ekes out the tension to unbearable levels

The first 5 minutes starts off okay, a little slow but good production value, decent dialog. It all goes down hill from there. 35 minutes into it and nothing's happening.

Eventually, the violence starts, but it's so unrealistic and over the top, it's not believable, even within the context of the story.

The violence is really fake too, with everyone getting beat to bloody hell, then walking around sporting a couple band-aids, like they are super-human. Sometimes, even the physics stand out as obviously wrong.

This movie is frankly stupid. As it drags on, even the dialog and filming goes downhill, as if the crew realized just what a bad a movie they were making and gave up on it.

Normally, I try to finish bad movies so I can leave a complete review, but with this one after an hour I had to fast-forward through most of it.

The only reason I gave it two stars in the actors seemed to be trying with what little they were given.

Now considering the budget of this movie was a tiny 180k this puts some of the movies that Hollywood is producing to shame. The script is sharp and the characters are well formed, a little too well formed maybe. The lead psychopath does an excellent job in luring the audience in with his charm, while disguising an underlying darkness that is truly reprobate. His counterparts play their parts equally well with a mixture of desperation and fear. Bottom line the story is very simple but there is enough thrills to keep your attention all the way. Would definitely recommend this. I'm sure everyone in the cast will glean bigger roles thanks to this.

I saw this film at it's premiere at the Leeds International Film Festival 2014 and was delighted to find a gripping story with very interesting characters. Both female leads were fantastic in their roles and I was gripped from start to finish. It is a definite step up for Director Dominic Brunt after his directorial debut with Before Dawn (2012) and both the character building and story have improved dramatically. The story is thrilling and the actions of the film's Loan Shark villain are brutal and visceral, often shockingly so. This only adds to the gritty, real world quality the film presents to us. I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys a good thriller! 10/10

Though better not, because you'll be baiting for a long time. Which can be considered a pun especially considering our main bad guy in this. The movie has a feel of TV movie of the week to it. The main bad guy being so cliché that he almost ruins a completely solid build up. The introduced female characters where really nice and felt "real". Overcoming diversities, standing their own ground and such things.

But again the moment the bad guy comes into the play ... and it's not like the viewer will not be aware of him. It's very predictable, to a point where you are wondering if the women shouldn't have seen it earlier. This is not a generalization, actually the characters seem strong enough to be aware or to have realized what was going to happen. If anyone is doing a generalization it's the movie. And it's a shame, because these things happen and the victims have a hard time battling them ... So while the theme/idea works and it starts off good, it does slide into bad country very quickly