Infernal

Story is good, acting ok, kid is good. But for the love of everything, whenever is was night time in the movie they played this background white noise that was comprised of super loud cricket chirping- while they are inside! I guess it was added to really ensure the audience "knew" it was night time, even though the lack of light and people being in bed helped. If I lived in a house with that many g.d. Crickets all the time I would also go bananas.

I honestly didn't like this movie from the very start. The acting seemed forced, and I almost turned if off just 10 minutes in. BUT, I have a rule...once I start a movie, no matter how bad that it is, I have to finish it. First off, the continuity of the film had some issues. For instance, when the girl was in the car combing her hair, her hair with very blond. Then when she got out of the car it was more red and dirty brownish. Some of the scenes were WAY to long and drug out. The actors kept repeating dialogue, but in a slightly different way. The "demon" that they had for the film looked more like a party gag than anything remotely scary. The demonic talking when the father went into the closet, was absolutely amateurish and ridiculous. The "possession" of the father was way off base, but at least they got most of the elements of possession in there. BUT, then they let him become more and more compassionate with the mother. I did however like the little girl and the hammer scene, that was probably my favorite part of the movie. I had to keep pausing the movie to see how much more time that I had to deal with this crappy movie.

I'm going to file this under "could have been good". The story had potential. The direction didn't seem terrible. The acting however was just atrocious, with the exception of the little girl. The biggest down fall of this B rated, well maybe C rated, movie is the dialogue. It's just incredibly bad. The characters cuss constantly which isn't a problem for me really, but then they mix in large words that sound completely out of character. An example would be something like "F**k, I have to walk swiftly into the washroom of our domicile and use the proper facilities to take a s**t." It's like that through the whole movie, very strange. It's one of those movies that you just have to finish to see how bad the train wreck is going to be. I really think the story was a decent one though, just poorly pulled off. I like horror movies that use very little special effects, because for me it adds to the thought "this could happen". Anyway, I wouldn't say it was a complete waste of time, but it was close.

Infernal is a story about a couple who get married, have a child and live an increasingly difficult life. Much of this is because they have a weird little girl--one that a therapist says is autistic, though there isn't a lot of evidence for this, as the child's actions, though weird, were not consistent with this diagnosis. Later, however, she starts acting creepy and you see glimpses of demonic type stuff on the family's home video cameras.

The story had some nice creepy moments, however, on balance I would not recommend the film. I have a strong prejudice against movies that employ the unsteady cam--a camera that never seems to stay in one place. A lot of TV shows and movies have been made that way but shouldn't have. Now I am not saying that nothing should be shot that way, as there are a few good examples where the camera looking like it's being held by someone with tremors isn't bad--such as with the deliriously profitable Blair Witch Project. But watching films like this is really hard on the eyes and unless there is a real compelling reason, these sort of films and shows quickly annoy. A few times such camera-work would have worked during the course of Infernal (such as when the family was videotaping various events such as weddings and a birthday party) but everything?! Additionally, the dialog seemed to need a lot of work. All too often the characters just said 'f**k' at the exclusion of something meaningful.

What is wrong with you people making this kind of crap?! This movie is neither scary nor interesting, it is just a boring waste of time! This is just 99 minutes into the boring life of sick people who don't even know why they actually auditioned to be in that movie in the first place. Please, stop the found footage stuff, we already got it : it is lame, the camera is shaky, we're getting seasick from watching a movie, and that is not supposed to be happening! The horror genre is going down and is probably going to disappear into the freak genre of stupidity. I would have liked to review something if there were any material to actually review, but there is none! It is ludicrous how that kind of dough could found enough support to make into an actual movie.