Charismata

Don't get fooled by the reviews and awards. This is another over-hyped horror by the studio. So many of these always. It only gets hype because hipsters think its cool to like any film that is foreign that's all. I know that this is English language but you will have to watch it with subtitles when the accents are so heavy. Sometimes I couldn't even understand what they are saying. Some english cops chase a killer who is also a demon. It's okay. Not scary and boring most of the time. 2 good scenes and okay acting or I would score it even less. Cheap looking. If you want to watch great foreign horror you should watch J-Horror instead. They do it so much better. I will make a list.

Charismata is billed as a psychological horror from co directors Tor mian and Andy Collier. As with all independent productions you're never sure what to expect but I have to say that with Charismata I was pleasantly surprised. Even after the first few scenes the quality of cinematography, colour grading and acting performances assured me that I was about to experience a polished offering.

The storyline revolves around Rebecca Faraway (Sarah Beck Mather) a homicide detective working with her partner Eli Smith (Adonis Anthony) on a series of gruesome sacrificial murders. As the investigation progresses she begins to experience an increasing amount of disturbing visions and hallucinations leading her to question her own sanity. After being asked to take a back seat on the case she independently digs deeper to try to find a link between her visions and the prime suspect, property magnet Michael Sweet leading to a cat and mouse chase with an occultist mad man where the line between reality and insanity becomes more and more unclear. With good to great cast performances and an unobtrusive but excellent score Charismata in not without its faults but they are far outweighed by its positives.

In an absolute vacuum, with no other reviews or movies to go on, this gets a 9/10 easily.

The acting is very good, the film is well made and there are bits of humor throughout.

I'm really tough on movies and I thoroughly enjoyed Charismata as a great way to pass a Saturday afternoon.

A rookie female detective cracks under the pressure of dealing with a constant stream of misogyny from her douchey colleagues while hunting an occultist serial killer who turns his supernatural(?) powers against her. I enjoyed this.

The good

Like the other Brit film Kill List from a few years ago, there is a weird, gritty-yet-off-kilter vibe running all the way through this. Like David Lynch directed an episode of Cops, but in England. I liked.

Sarah Beck Mather is just superb as the lead. One of the best female horror leads in a while. In the first scenes she looked as bitchy as the men, but you soon see that this is a shield she puts up and she's already close to cracking.

The bad

Pacing problem. The first part was very slow and the gloriously fun last part seemed rushed. If they took 10 minutes from the start and added 10 to the end then the movie might have been outstandingly good.

The ugly

After using some really effective practical effects for most of the run time, the last minute was full of schlocky low budget horror CGI.

Overall. Not quite as good as Kill List, but still pretty good and well worth your time.

...but the marketing is TOTALLY misleading. The DVD box basically is for a different film! It's like the producers chickened out at the last minute and did desperate packaging to boost sales.

What it is, is like a 90 minute X-Files episode, but in England, and Scully is the main character, and Mulder is a sexist bully a-hole, and all the cops are sexist bully a-holes, and the perp is a sexist bully a-hole satanist. And Scully has to deal with all the gaslighting and like save the day.

Good acting, especially Scully who is GREAT. Good cinematography, good special effects, no silly jump scares, surprisingly funny at times, overall very underrated.

I hated the ending. The last minute was like the producers chickened out again and left something for the gore kiddies. Would have been 9/10 with a different ending.