 Thanks for checking out this movie review video, so this is for the 2020 film Violation. It is a shutter original and it's coming to shutter on Thursday, March 25th and for that reason this is going to be a no spoiler review. Now when I say no spoilers I mean a little bit I will tell you some thematic things that end up happening in the film but I'm not going to really tell you the events other than a very quick synopsis that's like a sentence or two that doesn't give much of anything away. So anyway and it's usually a lot less than what's actually in the trailers just So this film Violation like I said shutter original coming Thursday, March 25th written and directed by Madeline Sims Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli this is their first feature film together and first feature film not together for that matter as well. Sims Fewer actually plays the main character of Miriam and I do need to shout her out because her performance was very good. It's not an easy character to play in my estimation and she pulled it off really really well. I think in general the acting in this is quite well done. Now that said this is a mix. I'm going to tell you good things about the film and I'm going to tell you bad things about the film and if you really need to know overall I would not watch this film again. I watched it once and that is enough for me and in fact overall I did not like the film. There is a great film in there and that's what frustrates me about this movie is there's a really good film in there. It's just a lot of kind of technical things and I'll talk about those kind of came together to really stifle that and make it very frustrating and very hard to actually watch so let's get going. So the synopsis a real quick synopsis basically it's about a two sisters and one of them has some indiscretions with the other one's husband and then she seeks to fix it basically and things get messed up because it's a horror film and I don't want to tell you too much more than that because if you want to watch it go ahead and watch it I mean if the trailer looked interesting go ahead and check it out. Like I always say even though I didn't like this film and I'll tell you why I will still tell you things I did like about it just like the acting but I also always say that every film is worth watching at least once just for the purpose of figuring out if you like it because yes there will be people who see this review and they're like you're crazy it's an amazing film and that's good that's great I really hope that is the case but there will be other people who see it and say yep I don't like it or they're in between so it's all kinds it's just an opinion people but anyway let me tell you what I felt the opening with choir music oh and you do need to know for this first note that I'm going to read you the way I do this is I take notes as I'm watching the film so the notes that I'm as I go through the notes it's as I was watching the film so it's chronological for the film typically the opening with choir music and lots of up close slow motion shots tells me it's either going to be great high art or too artsy that it just crashes and burns closer to the crashing and burning in my estimation than the high art there is an aspect to this of trying to do too much visually and trying to think too much that you're an auteur or these two individuals thinking too much that they're auteurs when they don't have the technical skills in my opinion now that said certainly better than me at filmmaking so I would be the first one to admit that but when you're trying to you know make a living doing this you're putting the film out there it leaves it open for pointing out these you know criticisms yeah but that's why I always present good and bad with these the camera work is unbelievably unstable in this film this is something that bothers the hell out of me this is something that's very problematic with films and I'm going to tell you why I'm going to read it exactly how I wrote it please use a tripod it's fine to be shaky when you're moving with characters or it's an intense crazy scene but when characters are just sitting or standing use a tripod this is a piece of technology that's been around for quite some time now we have tripods we know how they work if you're just if you have a camera that's consistently unstable and moving during shots even when nobody in the shot is moving it's a stable shot like someone's just there two people are talking and they're just sitting or laying down or whatever that should not be shaky that's a poor choice it is very bad this film it's shaky throughout the whole thing the camera work there are a few shots here or there where you could tell they actually used a tripod so they own one and I think they should have used it a lot more it's very distracting it doesn't make sense like I said though using that kind of shaky you know more raw camera work is totally good for like really tense moments and there are some of those where they use that and it works it's fine like that or if you're you know filming and moving with the characters or trying to move around them or whatever but there are too many shots where it's just one shot from one position nobody's really moving and it's extremely shaky that is bad filmmaking in my opinion I hate it it's very distracting it really kills one of the things that really kills the film for me uh they do a good job of establishing an underlying issue between characters without being cliche about it that is one of the things I think story wise there was a great story idea when the script was being formulated granted I think the script needed to be cut down a lot they needed to do more passes that I don't know if they had other people read it other than themselves but it needed some more edits in my estimation really needed to be edited down now it also could have been a situation where the script was you know more slim and then when they started shooting things they just added stuff or they elongated scenes and then they just left that in for the final edit but I don't know but they do do a good job of kind of establishing character relationships and I think that's partially through the writing of who the characters are the events of what go on the dialogue and the fact that the dialogue actually feels very realistic and that is not easy to do I do have to give them a great credit for being able to create characters who feel realistic and who speak in a realistic manner and have a conversation that feels very true to life that's not easy to do and there are so many movies that do not accomplish that so that is a really awesome thing I was a fan of that there are a lot of real nice looking nature shots in this film but there are also way too many close-ups of a multitude of things that's another one of these things where you can tell to a degree that this is kind of a first feature film because they're trying to incorporate one type of shot a lot of times you know it's kind of like when new filmmakers use the lens flare a lot which thank thank goodness they didn't do any lens flare in this thank you for not doing that but so many close-ups it gets so annoying and you can't see what's happening now I'm sure there was some sort of purpose for it where you know it plays into the actual story I have some theories on that I'm not going to go into but because it could spoil things but it doesn't look good it doesn't play well and you did it too often with a lot of things if you do them too much the impact of when you're doing them becomes less and less and less and that's kind of a theme with a lot of things with this film is doing certain things too much or for too long and it just waters it down it makes it less interesting it has less impact that's just something that ends up happening with this film so and I'll talk talk more about that in a minute the dialogue and characters once again great script writing but also the acting they deliver it super well that's another thing I need to say the music beats you over the head it is very over the top at times this is another thing that kind of bothers me with film even in times when there's not really that much going on or it's not particularly scary or tense or whatever it's kind of like over the top music like bring it back but to balance that out I do have to say there are a bunch of scenes where they use no music they basically cut it out so you can focus on the sound design which is pretty good and what's going on and leaving the audience to their feelings to try and you know work through things and there are some very key scenes that are very good scenes very well done acted and shot and everything where other than the shaky camera where that silence really plays into it it makes you uncomfortable it increases tension increases being uncomfortable and it's great for the overall feel of the film so I like that it doesn't take long for the film to feel like it's dragging that's bad it is a hour and 47 minutes of a film by the time it got to about the half an hour mark I started looking at my imaginary watch because I was like is this going to be dragging the entire time and the answer is yes yes it is going to be dragging the entire time cut this thing down this is what I was talking about about cutting down the script or just cutting down you know the scenes they let scenes go on way too long the editing is a problem with this film a huge problem and for that reason it has very significant pacing issues and you just lose your desire to keep going with the story in my opinion like I said I'm sure there will be people out there who feel differently about it people who you know stuck with it the whole time and they were like yeah pacing was fine for me for me way too slow watered it down like I was saying really long scenes that did not need to be that long you got to get better with editing I'm gonna say something I say a lot I'm refer back to the hit movie host which was under an hour because that's how long the story needed to tell to be told basically and with this film you needed a lot less time than an hour and 47 minute runtime to tell this story they needed to cut at least 20 minutes maybe a half an hour maybe even more and that's not good that is not good in my opinion okay so scenes are just too long and a few drawn out scenes about an hour and an hour and 15 minutes into the film would have stood out in a very good way where it not for the rest of the drawn out scenes this is kind of what I was saying is when you do something too much it waters down the impact of when it should have impact prime example there are two really good longer scenes that work as being longer scenes but by that time they don't have the impact that they would have had all the other scenes been cut down a lot more see what I'm saying see where I'm going here there's a scene people are going to lose it over because it's going to make them very uncomfortable and I'll just say this make them uncomfortable in a sexual way people are going to lose it I have no problem with this I'm actually fine with kind of putting this in there pushing that boundary go for it because if the roles were reversed people would not complain I'm just saying uh but I did applaud that move because I was like oh I did not see this company that are this coming and people are going to lose it over this so it'll be interesting to see online what people say about that with about an hour left in the film I just wanted it to end it speaks to how bad the pacing is how long it's drawn out oh my gosh and that sucks so bad because like I said there is a really good movie in this film there's a really good movie there it just gets lost it gets watered down it gets drowned out it's so unfortunate actually they could just take it you know it won't solve the the shaky camera situation but they could just take the footage that they have and edit it a lot better a lot tighter and make it a much better film in my opinion much better there's a weird look at in certain scenes where the light is actually blurry I think it has to do with the exposure time for the camera like literally you'll see like prime example like inside of a house like an actual like lamp that's lit and there's just this like weird blurry glow around it it looks terrible um those things are not good that should not be in there the most intense scenes do not use music that bears repeating which was a good choice because it makes you more uncomfortable and there is stuff to be uncomfortable about in a very good way in this film and I applaud that stuff there is some messed up stuff there is some intense stuff uh and for that reason that's why I say I'm so let down by the fact that all these other technical things really killed this film for me I wanted to love it I really wanted to love it and there were parts I did love obviously points for good practical effects at certain times in this film really good practical effects at certain times that really enhance the uncomfortable level the gross level all that great stuff um the end scene the the very end portion of the film has great dialogue and it has wonderful gravity to the film and for that reason I really like the way the film ends probably the last like five minutes or so very good um it's a powerful ending it's a great ending it's really well done but the road to get there was tough it was too hard you're gonna lose people before you even get there unfortunately just saying all right so my last feeling on this film to wrap it all up there are good and important points to this film having to do with consent victim blaming and silent suffering but the directing the cinematography and the editing kills this film it's very unfortunate in my opinion but there's a lot of good raw talent here this is the first feature film so those individuals who made this film you know realize what could have been done better and go on and make more film like I said I'm just one person giving my opinion on it I know there will be people will probably say this is an excellent and perfect film sure you know but that's all I have to say about it I am very interested to hear what everyone else has to say about it so put it down in the comments which by the way go ahead spoilers in the comments no problem and we'll we'll talk about it did you love it did you hate it were you in the middle I could see people being everywhere on this film and let's talk about the more controversial scenes of this film because there are a good amount of them so anyway do me a quick favor and hit that subscribe button that is your best way to repay me for doing this video or any video on my channel I'm sure you've liked at least one video at some point hopefully and if that is the case take that one second and hit that subscribe button whenever someone does subscribe I get an email notifying me I look at that person's profile and I say internally thank you to this person very cool person that is actually true I 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