DarkLady2 Reviews

The Lodge (2019)

Had potential

[6/10 · 15 September 2019]

I was quite excited with this movie and just saw it at the Lisbon International Horror Filme Festival.

In fact, this movie seemed really brilliant on its first half, building tension and causing some doubts on the audience about the existence of paranormal stuff going on or not. The problem is exactly the storyline, really confusing and lacking some explanations on the second half of the movie and the slow pace.

Final twist was expected to save the day but it was the opposite.

Get In (2019)

Nice thriller, many moral issues

[7/10 · 15 September 2019]

I had the chance to watch this movie in the Motelx - Lisbon international horror film Festival with the director's presence.

The movie makes a good job of making the viewer uncomfortable by a situation that can happen to all of us: going on vacation this family lend their house to their sons's babysitter and her husband and on their return they find their home locked with the couple claiming themselves tenants. It is clear the social critic to the state system and their inability to look further at situations in a different perspective. Also and mainly, the director makes some statements in subjects as racism, genre, discrimination and lack of "masculinity".

It is a nice thriller but it seems that it is more focused on social critic than buillding tension as expected. Good actors, nice climax and very poor ending. Nice try, let's wait for the next one.

PS: At the end of the movie, there was this Q&A with the director and he wasn't very clear about some choices and claimed the last scene of the movie as his favourite.

The Cleaning Lady (2018)

Disturbing story

[9/10 · 10 September 2018]

Had the opportuniy to view this movie at MOTELX2018 in Lisbon and it was a great surprise. A good story with the right pace, great characters development and good cinematography. Tension is greatly built during the first half of the movie and the second half delivers this gory, violent and upseting action with a very interesting finale.

I'm pretty glad I managed to watch this great movie, I was really missing something like this. Jon Knautz already directed the movie The Shrine which was great, hope he can keep up the good work.

Behind the Walls (2011)

Could be much better

[3/10 · 14 July 2012]

Though I had some doubts about it, I decided to take a look at this one since the french have been so creative, in a good sense, lately. Unfornately I was wrong. The plot starts out perfectly and takes us deeply into the main character Suzanne, played by Laetitia Casta, but that is all. Such a nice scenario and environment should have been better exploited. Everything goes around Suzanne and her personal issues e specially how these issues get into her inside of the house. When the little girls disappeared and Suzanne discovered this mysterious basement involved in a supernatural environment I was expecting the real emotion but that also failed. A good plot could have saved this perfect scenario and great actress, who plays perfectly her character.

Hostel: Part III (2011 Video)

There's no love like the first but still it's a good movie

[8/10 · 16 December 2011]

I've read two or three reviews on this new Hostel and it seems that people were waiting for more gory stuff and so they didn't like it. Well actually gore doesn't happen much in this one but for me is still a great and entertaining movie.

We're taken from Slovakia to...Las Vegas. In Las Vegas the movie looses much of its frightening part since this is not an unknown place at all. Four friends met in Vegas in order to have a blast there, once one of them is getting married next week. Most of the time we are waiting for the moment when they will be caught and Mr Scott Spiegel had this brilliant idea of giving some twists around the plot starting at the first ten minutes and finishing with this great finale, though we can say that it has something of a cliché.

Not much of gory stuff (or maybe I've seen too much horror movies), the original essence of Hostel it's here but with many different things and a different place which changes a lot of the impact of the movie on people.

You should definitely see this one. For me better than Hostel II, but Hostel I is still the best.