Nocturne (2017)

Expected more

Brilliant and touching

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This was a horrible movie. The acting is bad. The camera work is shoddy. The story sucks. The characters do things that really don't make sense (like participating in a game of strip black jack knowing she had bruises that she didn't want anyone else to see or conversing with someone you know you didn't call because you were phoning the police). I absolutely love horror movies but this one was just too terrible. It gives the malevolent spirit too much control over unnecessary things. How can it already be possessing someone and still have control over other people? If you want to see a good ouija board movie go for Ouija: Origins of Evil. It's not perfect, but it's way better than this.

Some kids throw a graduation party at a house. One of them does card tricks and talks about religion and falsifiability. He suggests they play an alternate Ouija game using labelled cards. They start asking questions mostly about sex. There are some unresolved romantic issues among the group. They fail to end the session with "good bye" and something breaks the glass they've been using.They spend time in the jacuzzi playing "Never Have I Ever" which reveals some more about the characters. Afterward, finally, one hour into the movie, one of the character shows some strange signs. She displays some magic tricks of her own, starts talking in unison while someone else is speaking and can even say ahead of time what the other person is about to say. Things eventually turn deadly as the weird girl starts looking sick and recites biblical passages about the devil. Things turn strange as she seems to have some control over time as well. The innocent girl, who has some dark secrets of her own, will have to figure out a way to survive all this.Nocturne managed to surprise me. It's smart, has a good story with some surprises, attractive actresses, some nudity, and a bit of gore. I have such low expectations of lower-budget horror movies these days but this movie is better than most. That said, it takes too long for things to get going, once the action begins it had my full attention, but the character are stuck acting nonsensically. I'm also not crazy about the dark sepia look of the movie. Nocturne represents a strong effort by a small production team.

This contains barely a spoiler, so continue reading.... I would consider this a "film". Sure it has a few flaws but to me this was something created by a group of people that have a passion for film making. It came on after a movie I was watching while I was doing some late night work; I didn't find myself tuning it out. For a (likely) small budget and actors I've never seen before, it's pretty damn good. There was a scene that kinda had me squirming. I think this film's biggest fault is the color of the blood but if you find yourself colorblind like my mother totally is, you'll never notice a difference. I bet if this was streaming on Netflix this would have a higher rating. Don't be afraid to give it a try.

The set up; A group of friends have an impromptu seance and invoke a dangerous and vengeful entity. Sounds simple, right? Well, for a micro-budget film, it did everything it set out to do, and succeeded in more ways than it failed. First, the acting; most of the cast was really, exceptionally talented. You believed them when they spoke, and it felt like watching a group of friends interact as if you were a fly on the wall. Secondly, the story doesn't take too long to get going, and once it does, it doesn't let up, even for a minute. The special effects were really nicely implemented, and the levitating objects and gore-effects were really top-tier. (That bathroom scene will forever be etched in my mind). The star of the show is the girl who is possessed. She really took her role and ran with it, and the movie grew better because of it. She made the movie, and I am so happy to see that the rest of the cast pulled their weight.So, I went in with zero professional cinematography and directorial finesse, is more than made up for by strong performances and some neat SFX. Overall, one of the best surprises of the year. Highly recommended.