Totem

The actors did a great job from what I could tell. The director, Marcel Sarmiento, is well known for Deadgirl, which I have not seen but many where hopeful he would top. Although Marcel is credited for writing the story, the story and screenplay was written by Evan Dickson, of which it is Evan's first feature film.

The movie starts off with an interesting premise and held my attention the first half. The cinematography is fine but later it becomes obvious they were working with a limited budget.

Two-thirds into the movie things start to go awry and although the pace picks up I felt the story gets more unbelievable not just in decisions that are made but with distractions that make it obvious there might have been editing issues.

The saving grace is there is a twist at the end that most people would not have seen coming but it was not enough for me to say it is a must see unless you are a fan of the actors or the director.

Folks, this is a decent horror flick. Its no Academy Award winner, but it doesn't suck either.

I saw TOTEM on Saturday 11/18/17 on HBO when it was rated as 4.3/10 and I'm glad I watched it despite the questionably low rating. Its got a good plot, some good scares, a cool plot-twist at the end, and is overall a decent horror flick.

Now I'll be the first to admit I watch movies for enjoyment - I'm not pretentious nor do I study a flick for tone, cinematography, screen writing, editing, lighting, sound, etc.

Albeit obvious, I'm an American conservative guy, and my favorite genre's are Horror/Suspense, Action/Adventure, Westerns, Crime/Legal, War/Military, etc. ... and I tend to keep my movie "reviews" simple.

I either:

1) Loved it - awesome

2) Liked it - not too bad, or

3) Hated it - it sucked

If you like horror movies and aren't bent on a movie being perfect, you'll like it - and yes it is worth the 90 minute investment in time, and the Red Box fee (if any). I almost gave it a 7 (its a very high 6).

Again, its no 10, but certainly is no 4 ...

All I knew about this 2017 movie when I sat down to watch it in 2020 was that it was a horror movie. And that is, in itself, more than sufficient to make me have an interest in watching a movie.

I hadn't even heard about director Marcel Sarmiento's movie "Totem" before 2020 when I happened to stumble upon it by random chance.

I must say that the movie had potential, and it definitely scores some points for being different, whereas it could very easily just have followed that classic how-to-make-a-horror movie formula. But while the movie does differ in its contents than most other horror movies of the same type, the movie just failed to deliver on the entertainment bits. Sure, the movie was watchable, but when the movie can to an end, I was left with a feeling of 'was that really it?'.

The acting in the movie was good, and for me it is always nice to see new talents on the screen, and I can't claim to have been familiar with anyone starring or acting in "Totem", so that also does count for something.

For a horror movie, then "Totem" wasn't overly impressive. It was more of a thriller than it was a horror movie. I sat down to watch "Totem" with the expectation of it being a horror movie, so I was somewhat disappointed in that aspect.

The movie makes little use of CGI, so this wasn't a movie that was heavily reliant on CGI effects to bedazzle the audience. There was some, and they were actually good enough for the movie.

"Totem", however, just felt incomplete, as if something very crucial to the mixture was missing. I can't say what it was, but I feel like the movie came in short. It felt like director Marcel Sarmiento set out to want to accomplish a bit too many things all at the same time, but managing to deliver only on a handful of them. And that is why I am rating it four out of ten stars.

Slow,poorly written and tiring. And that's just the first few scenes. It gets worse from there...

Father moves his emotionally needy girlfriend in with his two daughters and things go to hell from there. This was like a bad episode of a Lifetime drama series, except for it lacking drama or cohesion. It just gets worse as the minutes drag by.

Not going to spoil the "twist"...but let's just when you get there you wonder what took so long. It's a surprise; however, it's like winning the lottery when you are 90. It could have happened earlier and you'd have been more pleased if it had.

Dull film. Silly premise. Not worth the 96 minute run time.

I don't normally write reviews, but felt that Totem was getting way to many bad comments. Totem ain't a great 'must see' movie, but it's not a bad movie. A solid scary flick with a few jumpy moments and a nice twist in the tales tail. Give it a watch👍