Saint Clare

I'd had this film on my watch list for quite a while as the premise sounded intriguing and from what I know about Bella Thorne, she's keen on artistic risks. While it was intriguing, it certainly wasn't worth the wait.

There are plenty of interesting ideas on offer, but several are under utilised or forgotten about. There's artistic flare at times, reminiscent of other recent horror such as Censor and, to a lesser extent, Saint Maud, but frankly the film is put together so sloppily that these are few and far between. For example, about ten minutes or so into the film, we're introduced to Frank Whaley's character, and it seems like we're suddenly getting a dynamic akin to Griffin Dunne in An American Werewolf in London, but the film soon gets bored of that.

Bella Thorne was fine as the titular Clare, and Whaley isn't bad either, but the rest of the cast felt either limp, hammy or in Ryan Phillipe's case, wooden. These performances, coupled with predictable twists and haphazard editing and directing create something held together with tape rather than superglue and it comes close to falling apart completely.

I really wanted to like this film after waiting for so long, and while I didn't hate it, it falls into the category of forgettable films like The Night House.

A good movie with some decent performances. For once a movie on a theme like this without any nudity or gore.

I was worried that the movie will probably be ruined in the final act, but thankfully the director held her vision and the movie was a great watch to the end.

By the way, this is not a horror movie, unless you consider having a ghost should label it as a horror, that is!.

Worth your time, do watch.

Mitzi Peirone's Saint Clare is the type of moody, atmospheric, not always coherent yet always fascinating fright flick we might have seen crop up in the 90's, an in the vein of Dean Koontz type ethereal-pulp good time at the horror movies that, sadly yet a bit understandably, has been getting some bad reviews. Bella Thorne is Clare, a young woman born with a sort of divine clairvoyance that allows her to keenly identify predators, serial killers and evil folks of the same rotten pedigree, and viciously dispatch them with some sort of spiritual impunity ordained just on her. She's like an angelic vigilante and has focused her energy on the small town she lives in where apparent human trafficking murderers have been operating freely for decades with little investigation by the local cops. The film tries this "darkly whimsical" energy that doesn't always flow, but is an interesting aesthetic choice and Thorne, who has seemed in the past incapable of a performance that registers beyond a placid stare and not able to annunciate her lines any other way than a stoned valley girl, is actually pretty engaging and seems to have taken some actual acting classes, I quite enjoyed her character work here. She's joined by some yesteryear familiar faces including a weirdly intense Rebecca DeMornay as her anxious stepmother, Ryan Phillippe as a useless police detective and scene stealing Frank Whaley as the ghost of a distraught mailman she once tried to help and accidentally killed, who now benignly haunts her offering kindly advice and moral support. It's in these narratively kitschy, lovably kooky moments that the film truly shines and displays something memorable. This is after all a pretty straightforward supernatural detective story given the otherworldly arthouse treatment by filmmaker Peirone and while some elements skirt the silly and terminally unfocused, Thorne's winning performance, her lovely oddball chemistry with Whaley and a positively gorgeous, super eerie musical score by Zola Jesus/Phillip Klein make this well worth a look.

Had the pleasure of watching a review screener of this and it's fantastic. Mitzi Peirone steps up her game after the fantastic Braid and sees a high school girl huntibg and killing men whi assault young women. When her best friend is the next target all bets are off. Bella Thorne is magic. It has blood, comedy, violence, quirky characters, revenge driven girls and a ghost sidekick. What's not to love! I will definitely be watching again. It's in my top ten for the year to be sure. Peirone has taken everything she's learned from making her debut And dialed it up to 11 for a true and fun experience.

Yes there is the music group, but I am not talking about them (or am I?), so no pun intended as always. Bella Thorne took a liking to the subject matter of the movie - they even showed a short movie she did (where she plans to do a feature length) ... and it had also a theme of ... well people being abused to say the least.

This has an amazing Frank Whaley in it ... I actually wish there was more of him in here! He is so good in this - like a good sidekick if you want to call him that ... while he actually shouldn't be on her side ... one might think. That said, if this was just "reality" he shouldn't be there at all ... but this is a heightened this is meant to be a bit more than the truth.

Unfortunately what is shown here does happen in reality .. so having a vigilante going after the bad people ... not a bad thing. Even if it goes a bit ... or more than just a bit out there ... with some characters acting completely irrational ... it still is a decent watch to say the least ... suspense and all that.