 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. This is for the 2020 release Shutter Original Haunted. Now I know you may say 2020 it's 2021 at this point. Yes, but it was technically a film done in 2020. We're just getting it in 2021, early 2021. And when that's coming to Shutter, it's going to be January 14th, which is a Thursday. Now this review is coming out before that and for that reason. And since it's a new film, there will be no spoilers in this. Now I say that but thematically there will be spoilers, but not events wise. I'm not going to tell you necessarily what happens other than a brief synopsis, which will kind of entail no more than what's kind of already out there as a synopsis, quick synopsis for the film. So anyway, this one is directed by Vincent Pernaud, who did films Persepolis, Villemollet, 81, Chicken with Plums, and Asylum, Twisted Horror and Fantasy Tales. I tried to do my best French there for some of those titles, but I couldn't. So this is a French writer-director and he wrote the script also with Lia Pernaudet and it was translated over into English by someone else. So just know it was originally in French, then translated over to English, script-wise that is, and it was shot in English. So no subtitles or anything like that. Yeah, so synopsis. It does give a little bit away, but it doesn't give a lot away. Basically, I can't give you any synopsis without giving away a little bit of something. So it's about a woman who ends up being abducted quickly, gets away, and is basically then chased throughout the film, and you don't know what happens at the end. You'll have to watch the sea. So anyway, that's basically the best synopsis I can give without giving too much away. It starts with the telling of a tale that sets the stage for the entire film. Now I would say pay attention to the tale because thematically it's important to the movie, which makes sense because otherwise they wouldn't have it to open up the film. So for that reason it's not one of these kind of like grab you scenes and enthrall you type things that a lot of films do, especially horror films, early on immediately in the film, but it gives you important context for where the filmmaker is trying to go with the film. And once you see the end of it, you I think you should reflect back on what the story or the tale was in the beginning of it. They have an animation for the telling of the tale. It's kind of like a, it's a mixture of live action acting and animation and the live action acting is just shadows really. It actually looks really cool and works really well. It does look a little bit potentially weird at times because of that kind of fusing of the animation and the real life, but I think ultimately it really does look cool. I think it really does work. But when I say that it looks weird from time to time, it's your mind kind of being like, wait live action and this type of animation, it's just a weird thing to see. You've not seen it before. Or I mean, maybe you have. I have not seen it before. There's a real uh oh moment early on that lets you know that things are really about to get intense. Things are really about to change in the film. And that's where everything just really starts down the path of intensity. And there is a lot of intensity in this film. So if you're a person who likes more of a relaxed type horror film and not one that's always go, go, go, go, go intensity, intensity, intensity, this is probably not this film for you or if you're not in the right mood for it. But I would say, like I say with pretty much every film is no matter what I think, no matter what I say in my review, every film is worth checking out at least one time so that you can make up your own mind. Do you love it? Do you hate it? Because whatever I'm saying, you may 100% agree with me. You may 100% not agree with me. Or you may agree with some and not agree with other things. You should figure that out for yourself. But I will give you my opinion. There's a real quirky character who pops up early in this film and I found myself really, really hoping that they would be in the film a lot more. But based off who the person is or who the character is, who they play, you kind of probably already know going into it, they're not going to be in it all that long because you know, it's not the type of character that this is built for, unfortunately. And that I mean their job. You'll know what I mean when you see it. But really quirky character, I loved the character immediately. I was like, I need more of this character. But that does not happen, unfortunately. There's a kill that takes place in this film that ends up being offscreen. And now a lot of the times I kind of rail against that. I'm like, this is a horror film. This is what we're here to see. This is what we want as horror fans. But I was okay with it. Very surprisingly, I was okay with it. And I think it's because of a combination of the acting of it, the way they set up the tension going into it, the music that they used as a backdrop for it, and then the events that happen after the fact, because it's creepy, it's chilling, it's well pulled off, like you still get a good feeling of, oh my gosh, from it without actually seeing it. So it did work. And I was kind of surprised. And it speaks to, there is good filmmaking at play here. I mean, the directing is very good. The cinematography is very good. The acting is very good. All those technical things for this film are very good, in my opinion. The main villain in this, so there are basically like two villains to it. And the main villain kind of oscillates between being like scary and creepy, and then making all these kind of jokes and being lighthearted. But the type of jokes and his version of lighthearted is not everyone else's. So that stays creepy. But it's this interesting kind of dichotomy of he's this person, he's this person, he's this person, he's this person, which, you know, is supposed to say something about who he is at his core, obviously. And it works. And I think in particular, the person who did that one, good job being a bad person, almost too good of a job being a terrible person, because really makes you hate him, really creeps you out at times. Good acting. The film is set at night, and they do a very good job actually of making sure that you can actually see everything that's going on. This is one thing, I mean, the whole film's not taking place at night, but the beginning large portion of it is taking place at night. And I appreciate the fact that they made sure you can actually see what's happening. Too many times there are films that have night scenes or are entirely done in the night at night. And you can't see what's happening because the shots are too quick, because it's not lighted enough. There are ways to light scenes so it doesn't look like there's unnatural light coming in, even when it's dark. Just saying. And they did a good job with that here. That's what I'm trying to get at. Kudos to them, because I've seen too many instances where it's all sorts of crappy. There are a few good surprises in this film. For a while, it goes quite a while into it, and I was feeling like, are we gonna get to something different at any point, because I feel like I know exactly where this is going, and we're just going over the same thing kind of over and over again. But there are some surprises that are kind of littered throughout there. Are there enough, for me personally, no, I really don't think so. And one of the other things is that I'm not the type of person who likes just consistent action, and there's a decent amount of consistent action for long periods of time in this film. So for me personally, that doesn't enthrall me. Story enthralls me. Story moving things forward enthralls me, not just action, action, action, action. So I got kind of bored with this film for that reason. Just saying. But some people may really like that. Some people do. There's a situation the main character stumble upon toward the end that makes absolutely no sense, and it comes out of left field. And the interaction or not interaction they really have with that situation doesn't feel realistic for the situation. It was this real kind of like, what are we doing moment when it popped up? And it didn't really add anything to the film, honestly. So I don't know why they did it. It didn't make sense. It does try to get too dramatic at the end, and it ends up playing a bit ridiculous because of the level of dramatic that it goes for, especially because it draws things out too much, this kind of going back to what I was saying about kind of like the action just kind of going on too long or going down the same path and retreading stuff consistently early on. The ending, it does the same thing. It's just too long. And that goes to what is the runtime of this? Like with credits and everything, it's an hour and 26 minutes. It feels longer than that. And that should never happen. If you are under an hour and a half and it feels longer than an hour and a half, that's not a good thing. That means you needed to be better with your editing. You needed to cut some more stuff out of the film. That's one of my biggest problems with this film, honestly, is it just feels like it goes on too long. It just really does. Like I said before, really good directing, really good cinematography, really good acting. So those things, like I said before, technically great. The soundtrack was really awesome, very appropriate, very kind of like pulled back. Until it got towards maybe about halfway or a little bit past halfway, and then it started really amping up. And then it became kind of over the top for me. And it finishes very over the top to kind of go along with how it was saying things got kind of ridiculous. And that that is disappointing for me. There's an underlying theme of male aggression in pursuing women and a parallel of how it kind of makes people seem feral in a way. People can become very primitive, very feral when they go to that place of just aggressively going after a woman. And that's very much on display in the film. I believe the intent of the film to be a metaphor for an abusive relationship. So think about that when you finish the film. And certain portions are an allegory for the shift of male attitudes toward women from an older generation to a younger generation. And if you think about what I just said there, you'll know one portion in particular of the film, you'll be able to think to it and be like, oh, okay, that does make sense. And I really do think those two things that I listed there are points that are trying to be made with this film, or at least that's what I see in it. I'd be interested to know what the filmmaker would say about that. There are two villains that can actually be seen as representing two sides of the same person. So I want to throw that out there, watch the film, and then go back or think back on it and think these two villains as one, as just a representation of two sides of the same person. And see what you think about that, because the attention that you should pay then to the interactions and their personality traits and how they interact with each other is very interesting to view it that way. So I viewed it as it's potentially a situation of, you know, from a metaphorical standpoint representing one person, but representing one person as two physical different people within the context of the film and the story. Interesting, though. There are some portions that could be too disturbing, I do believe. So some people, like I was saying, some people might not be into this. It's not because of what's shown necessarily, but it's kind of how the tone is set for it and the acting as well. How good the acting is really sell some of the stuff that makes it more disturbing and how they set the tone for everything. And the music does play into that as well. So I do foresee some people seeing this and thinking it's too disturbing for them. It's too much for them. For me, there were times where I felt a little bit uncomfortable, but I was like, that's good filmmaking if I can feel that way. So I appreciated that aspect of it. But yeah, some people are not really going to see this and be like, I'm disgusted. I hate it. It's too much. And I understand that that's fine. Not everything's for everyone. But I was okay with it. I'm glad I saw it once. Now, that said, I'm not a huge fan of this film. It's okay, in my opinion. You know, I laid out everything good and everything bad in my opinion on it. So yeah, but I would be interested in hearing what everyone else has to say. So put it in the comments. So out of five stars with half stars in play, I was between two and a half and three stars. But I think I'm going to go towards the three. And the reason I'm going to go towards the three is because all the technical stuff like I was saying is very, very good. It looks really good and the acting in particular. So I think it deserves that additional half star bump. The reason I was initially thinking about a two and a half is just because I do feel very in the middle about it when I look at it and boil it down. It's too long, it drags too much. It seems like there's a lot of the same going on. The surprises, a few of them are interesting. But in the long run, I don't think they really meant much to the story. You know, but looks great, great acting, technically really well pulled off. I would like to see what this filmmaker can do with a different script, one that he hasn't been involved with, honestly. But all that said, I think the thematic stuff, at least what I could see in this film, that's cool. I just think they could have done it in a different way and not as over the top. That's another thing. I really don't like it when things go over the top unless they're doing it for a little bit of a comedic value. So anyway, but those are all my opinions. You can tell me if you think that I'm right about that or if I'm wrong about that, which actually, that's not actually true. Just tell me your thoughts. You can't say right or wrong with someone's opinion, but tell me your thoughts. Basically is what I'm getting at. I want to hear what you think of it. Did you love it? Did you hate it? Are you in the middle like me on it? I would love to hear that. But like I do say, always give a film a chance. You know, it's worth watching once. So do that. Now, another thing that's worth doing once is subscribing to my channel. I would really appreciate it if you could do that. That's your best way to repay me for any video I've ever done this one or any other one. It's quick, it's painless, and I appreciate it a lot. Now, believe me when I say that every time I get a new subscriber, I actually look at that person's profile and think to myself, excuse me, think to myself, that's a cool person. I'm very grateful. So thank you. But anyway, thanks for checking this out. And until next time, keep it brutal.