 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. This is for the 2019 release and shutter original the cleansing hour And this film is hitting shutter on October 8th Thursday October 8th is when it hits shutter This is going up ahead of that and for that reason this is a no spoiler review Although there are spoilers to the the degree that I I will talk about things that have basically been in the trailer you know anything that's out there that's in the Short synopsis that was released by shutter or anything in the trailer basically it's kind of fair game It doesn't ruin anything about the film because there's a lot of stuff that happens that you'll just have no idea So you can safely watch this if you've not seen the film and yeah, let's go I do have to have kind of a disclaimer in the beginning of this is that if you're not very familiar with me as a reviewer you need to know that I am not a fan Almost at all of like possession films ghosts like ghost films and found footage films Those are like my three subgenres that I really don't get into for some reason It's very very hard for a film in those subgenres to really grab my attention and make me feel like I'm really enjoying it So there are exceptions to those rules, but for the most part they don't so if one catches me in it To any degree I have to kind of think about it and be like what would someone who's into this subgenre think about this film? So that said I do think that people who are into the possession Subgenre would probably find this a pretty solid film because it actually interested me a bit and Normally with possession films. I'm just like boring boring boring. Don't care. Don't care Don't care. So the fact that they got me to pay attention Pretty good All right This was directed by Damien LeVec who did the films dark deadly and dreadful and is working on a film Asylum twisted horror and fantasy tales, which I believe is an anthology And I will say up front the writing is pretty solid the directing looks really good the acting for the most part is quite good Technically like cinematography wise it looks good It looks good a lot of the technical stuff is well done with this There's a bunch of CGI in the film that is used well and when it doesn't look all that great They do the smart thing of not having it on screen for a prolonged amount of time So you can't really tell that it's really bad or it looks a little bit off I mean you can start to but then it cuts away from it and It works for that reason so they're very smart about how they did the CG and there are some practical effects in it as Well in particular one at the very end that is really cool looking really good But I'll talk about that a little bit more obviously not gonna spoil it, but the film was written by LeVec and Aaron Horwitz Who doesn't have any other writing credits Horwitz? So like I said, it's a shot original coming Thursday October 8th So if this ends up sounding interesting make sure you check that out So kind of a short synopsis on the film. It's basically about some people who are running a online Exorcism channel basically it's kind of like a YouTube ish type thing where they're doing exorcisms on That's whatever their YouTube ish type thing is I don't even I Don't even think I caught what it was but but yeah so anyway, so online doing exorcisms they they're gonna do one live and Things go wrong. I mean that's pretty much all I'm gonna say because that's really all you need to know about the The base premise and I don't want to spoil anything about it. So there you go It jumps into action pretty much immediately which is always good to kind of grab the viewer and get them excited from the get-go So I really did like that The only problem is when they start with the action for someone like me There are a lot of kind of typical possession trappings that are involved immediately So I kind of started to roll my eyes immediately and I was just like Was this gonna be like The same old well trodden Ground and nothing new but it ended up not being like that So I I was happy about that aspect of it Also going into it. I didn't I hadn't read the synopsis of it So I didn't know it was like an online ordeal that these people were doing so when that's kind of Revealed I was like, oh, this is a different take, you know taking Possessions and exorcism and stuff like that and taking it more into the social media age Which social media is pointed to a bunch in this film? So that might actually be something that takes some of the older horror viewers out of it Me personally, you know, I'm almost 40 years old So I kind of fall in that area where it's like, you know, that stuff could bother me But really it doesn't I just realized that, you know It's a younger crowd than me making some horror films and you know, that's a big part of life is social media So it's gonna be in there So I'm not surprised when it comes up and I'm open to it So if you're gonna watch it and you're an older viewer just be open to that just know it's gonna happen I know people hate social media Sometimes but you know, it's a part of life. So it'll be in film Excuse me, there's a level of arrogance that gets introduced in In a key character as a as an attribute of a key character in this film Which ends up kind of foreshadowing the issues that end up coming up and kind of plays To, you know, some of the underlying themes in the film what they're trying to get at and that same character is also Supposed to be living a certain lifestyle in a way and doesn't and this kind of points to one of the underlying theme themes of When you live your life kind of misrepresenting yourself and especially when you're misrepresenting yourself for bad reasons So that is an underlying theme, which is a good theme typically when it comes up in film And I think they covered it in a decent way in some ways it gets to be a little bit too much during the film And in other ways, it's fine. So it's kind of a mixed bag on that one There's a big focus on social media like I just said a point is made about entertainment specific Oh my gosh, I'm sorry Specifically online content creators, you know people do YouTube videos stuff like that and that basically with videos You just have to keep one up in yourself And it's kind of that pressure and what it can end up leading people into doing which is, you know Kind of questioning things and being like how big do I go? Do I do things that are riskier? Do I do things that aren't ethical? Do I do things that you know misrepresent things including myself as a person? So it kind of struggles with that stuff and brings that up There's a bit of a comedic side to the film from time to time which keeps it kind of fun They you know when things get super super serious on the film They they kind of abandon that but leading up to that they have some comedic aspects to it Which I really do think helps with the pacing in the beginning It helps kind of move it when they need to introduce some characters and some backstory on characters and who they are and You know the more boring things, but they inject some comedy into it to kind of get you through and I like that aspect of the writing I think that really does work and a bunch of the comedy kind of ends up being in the form of Kind of going a little bit over the top by like by making fun of what they're doing in the film So I do like that There's some solid jump scares on this there's not a ton of ton of jump scares, but there are a few jump scares in it and Every every one of them that happened. I was like, yeah, that's a pretty solid jump scare idea It wasn't one that I was like, oh, I saw that coming or it wasn't actually good pretty solid So then it's kind of hard to do nowadays Like I said CGI looking pretty solid in this there's a little bit of an evil dead feel to it Having to do with a demon that isn't this like a possessed person basically It's kind of like a deadite-esque attitude that this demon has which is kind of like You know playful a little bit funny at times. So I like that I thought that when the evil dead came out that was a very unique interesting new twist on possession and on demons So to see that kind of reused works and I like it The whole movie is dark like lighting wise. It's dark. Well, I mean It's a horror movie. So material wise it is also dark, but lighting wise it's very dark But you can still clearly see what's going on and I always have issues with with films that Do things in the dark and you can't see what's going on The way that they were able to light it enough but still be in the dark gives it a really good look to the film But also you don't miss what's happening. So well executed on that front They employ flashbacks for some kind of like gradual reveal of backstory which The flashbacks didn't do a whole lot for me, honestly, and I kind of I don't know Just what they choose to you chose to use as of the flashbacks Just didn't have the impact that I think they were going for so I would have liked to see them do it a Different way, maybe I don't know just flashbacks were a little bit weird and from time to time They kind of took you out of what was actually going on in Present time in the film. So didn't really like that There are very overt swipes at the Catholic Church in this film and Catholic Well, I was gonna say and Catholic religion not really the religion so much But yeah, just the church there are very overt swipes at the church So if you're sensitive to that type of stuff, you know, you might have a bit of a problem with that You know, that's not to say that it's too much. I didn't think it's too much But then again, you know, I don't have a religion. I'm a person who was brought up with no religion I don't subscribe to any sort of religion so The other thing about that is that not only does this stuff not offend me But I I'm sure there are things in the film. I am missing because I don't Know a lot of things about that particular religion Catholicism So I'm sure people out there who are watching this who know about Catholicism and watch it You're probably gonna catch some extra stuff in it that I did not catch. So just letting you know and it might mean more to you me to you that way too There's a choice a character has to make in this one that actually seems that they don't really need to make a choice In the situation that they could do both things. So It doesn't work. I know what they were going for in that moment But it doesn't work really because you clearly are like I don't understand how this is like a tense Gotta make a decision situation because they can do both. I don't know Around the one hour mark It actually starts to stall a little bit and actually feels like they're starting to kind of stretch it for runtime And I hate that especially when they started, you know getting into the action They keep it moving with those comedic aspects and there's a lot of stuff that goes on It just sucks that it's moving moving moving looking good looking good looking good And then it hits that hour mark and then it feels like it steps way back and it slows way down And I understand it's because they need to flesh out some more of the story But I think they needed to kind of pepper it throughout the film a little bit better instead of trying to jam it all in That one portion that really slows it down before the finale now that said they do pick it back up in The finale which is great. They do rebound a decent amount, but That's slowing down feels like oh, no where we headed. Are we gonna are we gonna have a bad ending here? Is it just gonna Peter out and fizzle out what's gonna happen, but it does rebound thankfully Like I said before really awesome practical effects at the end of this film I am huge in appreciating the practical effects, so they did a really good job on that the design was nice the execution was quite nice, so Awesome and my final thought on it There are equal parts themes of not messing with things you don't understand and Misrepresenting yourself unethically for fame and money So know all this going into the film like I said before, you know, I'm not being in possession films So I actually was kind of entertained by it And I think that people were actually into possession films may find out quite quite a solid film So when I think about those things out of five stars with half stars in play, I'm going to give it a solid three star rating I think it's worth watching for people under People who are into possession films and even some people who aren't into possession films who just kind of want to Take a shot at it And like I always say, you know every film is worth watching at least once Just so you can experience it and you can make your own mind up on if you like it or not Because you know it may be that film that other people are like, it's okay, or I don't really like it But you're like wow, I thought that was outstanding. 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