The Wake (2017)

Best movie ever!

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

THE WAKE is another familiar-looking slice of indie horror set in a single location. Five friends hook up to attend the wake of a local kid who died mysteriously. There's plenty of atmosphere building here but as you'd expect, very little in the way of actual content, at least until the climax. The plot is fairly predictable even though the actors do their best to sell it, but at least this is a little more convincing than most.

The film opens by letting us know Casey (Allie Rivera) is going to be the final girl by showing us the end clip. Her boyfriend Tyler (Bryan Brewer-writer/director/producer) had committed vehicular homicide while drunk and they are going to the kid's wake. Now why the boy was out late at night and how he was hit when he lives high up on a hill on an isolated road was not explained.While at the wake, which consists of Tyler, his friends and three family members and no one else, they get tied up with a killer in the house.Now why Tyler was not in jail was explained later that the family didn't want to press charges...which is not how that works for drunk driving involving a death. Also the wake of a stranger I killed would not be where I would be going with my friends. They did managed to find a one fingered person who could play a child's piano to do the sound track. The acting, plot and dialogue were all bad, thank you Bryan Brewer for nothing. Scary stuff consisted of the proverbial burlap masks, a blue light, and doors opening and shutting by themselves. I even saw the mother thing coming at the end. The killer was liked Batman. Once caught, it took forever to get his mask off. The build up was more comical than suspenseful.The story itself had potential: If Allie Rivera had a nose job and acting lessons, if Bryan Brewer would stay behind the camera, if they fixed the plot holes, and created some dialogue.Phone companies have batteries in their lines so if you lose power you have plenty of time to call in a power outage. You don't lose phone service right away. Just saying. Close to being "so bad it is good." F-word, No sex or nudity.

Reminds me of I Know What You Did Last Summer- from the drunken driving, to Freddie Prinze Jr.'s lookalike as the lead to a low-rent Jennifer Love Hewitt (big nose and boobies included), to the blonde Sarah Michelle Gellar doppleganger w/ her the handsome yet drunken (& possibly violent!) BF- this seems a little familiar. The acting is so terrible that I don't know whether or not to laugh (is this a horror-comedy?) or to just shake my head. To be fair though, I had thought the role of the killer was transparent before I pressed play yet I kept guessing throughout the film. Don't walk into this movie w/ high expectations... OH and I also kept wondering- where the hell is the mom's other kid and why isn't she more worried about her only living child????? We never find out about that little blonde girl. Why did they even include that scene in there?

I hate having to review a film like 'The Wake' because I want so badly to like it, but have to be honest and admit that it is highly flawed. It's obvious that the people behind the camera are new to the industry and have a steep learning curve ahead of them. So some hopefully helpful advise I would give to them on this occasion would be: 1) Scrap the opening the credit sequence. I suspect it was only put there to pad the run time a little, which would be acceptable if you'd put some effort into it. Instead it may as well have been a black screen with names very slowly cropping up one by one. You certainly don't want to start your film on such a down-note as that created.2) Review the dialogue you have written. As you are writing it ask yourself whether in that actual situation anyone would say anything remotely like that. If not, go with something else. A lot of the dialogue in this film was so cringe-worthy it made for a very uncomfortable viewing experience at times.3) Make sure characters are reacting realistically to things. When there's a killer with a knife standing two metres away from a group of people, is it likely they would all just stand there calmly discussing their options? Of course not, and watching it happen in a film looks nothing short of ridiculous.4) Try to show less characters actual moment of dying. It doesn't matter how good you are at film making, it is a very difficult thing to make look realistic. Even in the 'The Dark Knight Rises' there is a particular death scene (Google it if you don't know what I'm talking about) that looks unbearably fake, and that's Christopher Nolan who was responsible for that. Proof that it is a very hard thing to get right.So there's just a few ideas to work on for the next project you endeavour yourself to. There were actually some elements of the script I kind of liked, and with just some simple (or perhaps not so) tweaks I can see you making a very enjoyable film to watch one day.