Shelley

Louise (Ellen Dorrit Petersen) and Kasper (Peter Christoffersen) want to become parents but Louise is unable to have children. She seals a pact with her Romanian maid, Elena (Cosmina Stratan), to bear Louise's child, but things don't turn out as they planned.

What sort of feeling or anticipation do we get when we approach "Shelley"? At first, the name evokes thoughts of Frankenstein's monster, but we quickly see this might not be the best parallel. The plot is much closer to a modern retelling of "Rosemary's Baby". Not that we needed one, but the concept of "natal horror" can always make room for one more.

The dynamics of this film are noticeably different from "Rosemary". In that film, the threat was always external. Mia Farrow was terrified of her neighbors, her doctor, and sometimes even her husband as she continually felt boxed in. With "Shelley", it's almost as though things have been reversed. The threat now comes from within (the child itself) and we see events not just from the mother's perspective, but also from the outsiders (the "other" parents).

The idea is good, and they must be applauded for casting an actual Romanian in the role of a Romanian maid. This is sort of counter-acted by having Danish people speaking English, however. I presume this was done to boost the chances of international screenings and sales, but it seems inauthentic. This is probably a nitpick, but in this regard I have to be a purist.

The bigger question remains: Why does the couple live in the woods without electricity? The answer, of course, is this offers a great setting for a horror film. But it is not adequately explained by the characters. You might think an employee would ask why there's no power, but it never seems to occur to anyone. Are they Luddites? Is this a religious thing? Maybe a little mystery is good, but it seems silly to avoid the issue altogether.

Early reviews seem to be very divergent and often mixed. Rotten Tomatoes has the film at an impressive 100%, while IMDb gives the movie only 5.7/10, which is nothing to be proud of. It's too early to rely on either metric, so let's look at more concrete examples. Noel Murray walks that middle line, saying the film "becomes frustratingly vague in the middle" but ends up giving it a passing grade anyway. Neil Genzlinger feels similar, saying the film takes "a minimalist approach that is both intriguing and somewhat unsatisfying… Maybe expecting a horror film to have a point is expecting too much." He clearly wants to like the film but cannot fully commit to it. Alissa Simon is even less impressed, agreeing that the film is "unsatisfying", and also volunteering "underdeveloped" and "ludicrous".

For my money, the film is a decent horror film in its own right and will probably be popular when it hits Netflix or wherever it ends up. But it is neither one of the best on the festival circuit nor one of the best horror films of 2016. In the glut of movies coming out year after year, this is still better than average, but the average seems to be on a decline… so it doesn't take too much to get a C when we're grading on a curve.

"Shelley" debuted in February 2016 in Berlin, and has been making the festival rounds. Most recently it screened at the Fantasia International Film Festival in July. No rest for the wicked, however. Director Ali Abbasi is said to be already at work on "The Holy Spider," a film about Saeed Hanaei, an infamous Iranian serial killer. (Other sources have him directing "Border", which may be the same film under a different title.)

Granted this film is a slow burn but the cinematography, dark atmosphere, acting, and score was top notch. Should watch when you are more relaxed and patient cause when you get there you will found it was worth the wait. I am a huge horror fan and I am sick and tired of the basic 90 min horror films that throw all the things at you in the first frame but with this director you have to have patience to fully understand the movie. There was 3 scenes I had to rewind that I missed the first time of viewing this movie. I agree with the thought of Rosemary's Baby by the way of David Lynch and I think it deserves a view. This is a solid horror film.

So it's a Horror movie and someone gets another person to carry their child for them. There could never go anything wrong now could there? Apart from the obvious and what we would expect (suspense, questions and themes of terror or at least Horror), this has some awkward acting in it. And while it may enhance the viewing experience for some, it may also feel wrong for a lot of others.

So buckle up and take this trip, try to stay with it and figure out what is going on. It won't be too clear cut from the beginning and there is enough suspense to go around. It's a decent stab (excuse the pun) to deliver on the premise the movie has. If you like the Genre you probably will like this too

This is the kind of slow-burn horror film that really, truly gets under your skin. the type of horror film that America doesn't make (although the last two years that has been changing, with flicks like The Babadook, It Follows, and The Witch). This won't be for every horror fan, especially those that want more craziness or loud jump scares. Instead, what the film does is establish its characters very well and from then on it lurks and creeps you out until you become more and more terrified by what's happening on screen. It's exactly the type of film that really lingers on the mind and I really hope more people seek it out.

Talk about slow paced! This movie just went on and on and on with no real progression. It was an hour and a half movie that could have easily been squeezed into 30 minutes with the needless scenes and repetitiveness taken out. The premise was good but due to a lack of a good script, editing and direction the film just meandered on with no real climax, pay off or closure. As it abruptly ended you thought "Is that it?". You could have forgiven the director if there was a great finale after the incredibly slow build up but it just whimpered out after 90 minutes of hoping that something great was going to happen. Greatly disappointing. You could see the director has seen the Omen from the numerous plagiarized snippets he randomly inserted (all the cheap ones that don't involve CGI)but it was just a very,very poor imitation to a movie that did this infinitely better. This was no horror and barely a thriller.Unfortunately the director thought broody scenes of landscapes made up for actual content.Sorry but this movie was a complete dud.