Acacia is a slow-moving film; I'll grant any viewer that truth. There are lot of scenes within the film that seem completely unrelated to the tapestry of the film itself, like the expounding of the relationship between two children. The dialogue of the adults is also stilted and questionable, which in turn confuses the viewer and tempts one to just shut the film off.
To that I plead: just hang on a little bit longer! Acacia is an odd film, repeating a time-line and waiting until the very end to make sense of everything. It's not a film for people with short attention spans, and that's just stone-cold fact. But by paying attention to the peculiarities of the actors, the ending is made just that much more impactful.
When the adopted son "disappears" and the scene opens with the mother, the father, and the father-in-law sitting at the table discussing what to do, it seems odd that one of the comments made is "We can't let him go unreported". That seems like a pretty "der" observation; but in the end, it comes out that the three adults are in on the accidental murder and subsequent cover-up of the adopted-son's death.
Suddenly, as the adults all succumb to their own guilt and supernatural influences, the stilted acting and peculiar scene-shoot make sense. The film is shot as a circular progression, rather than the typical linear style that nearly everyone is accustomed to. It's like combining the experiences of watching "The 6th Sense" the first and second time--you're unaware of what's going on, but at the same time you're noting the inconsistencies of character behavior.
I enjoyed this film because there wasn't a whole lot of predictability to it, and it lacked the key trademark of most Asian horror films--the freaky noise that the characters hear before they die. I appreciated that, because after "Ju-On" I can't stand freaky noises anymore.
To that I plead: just hang on a little bit longer! Acacia is an odd film, repeating a time-line and waiting until the very end to make sense of everything. It's not a film for people with short attention spans, and that's just stone-cold fact. But by paying attention to the peculiarities of the actors, the ending is made just that much more impactful.
When the adopted son "disappears" and the scene opens with the mother, the father, and the father-in-law sitting at the table discussing what to do, it seems odd that one of the comments made is "We can't let him go unreported". That seems like a pretty "der" observation; but in the end, it comes out that the three adults are in on the accidental murder and subsequent cover-up of the adopted-son's death.
Suddenly, as the adults all succumb to their own guilt and supernatural influences, the stilted acting and peculiar scene-shoot make sense. The film is shot as a circular progression, rather than the typical linear style that nearly everyone is accustomed to. It's like combining the experiences of watching "The 6th Sense" the first and second time--you're unaware of what's going on, but at the same time you're noting the inconsistencies of character behavior.
I enjoyed this film because there wasn't a whole lot of predictability to it, and it lacked the key trademark of most Asian horror films--the freaky noise that the characters hear before they die. I appreciated that, because after "Ju-On" I can't stand freaky noises anymore.