Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

michaelant555 The 3.8 rating put me off, but after reading some of the reviews that said people were being too unkind about this movie I decided to give it a try. It starts in 1891 and instantly comes across as one of those old Italian horror movies that you would rather poke your eyes with a short stick than watch any more of, but after the first ten minutes the film comes back to the modern day and stays there.The acting is okay. The story isn't particularly original, in fact it reminds me of the first season of American Horror Story just not so good, though it's still watchable (depending on your individual standards of course). It has all the usual goings on you'd expect from a horror film, and I guess it's on a similar quality level to The Visit, but I preferred this one; maybe because I was really looking forward to The Visit and got seriously let down, whilst I had serious doubts about this one and it turned out to be not so bad as I feared.If you watch this with the 3.8 rating in mind then you might just get pleasantly surprised. It's by no means perfect, but it kept me watching until the end and that says something as I've rolled my eyes at plenty of films in the past and have switched them off, but I made it through this one with only a few heavy sighs and a stern look or two at God for letting the makers put some things into this movie's story-line. I've given this 5/10, but it may be around a (watchable) 4.5, really.

Paul Magne Haakonsen The synopsis for "The Remains" is what lured me in, well, and also because I have always enjoyed horror movies. But I wasn't familiar with this movie prior to stumbling upon it by sheer random luck.And now having seen it, I can check it off the list, and say that I have seen it. It wasn't a particularly impressive movie, to be bluntly honest. The movie had a huge potential, but director Thomas Della Bella didn't utilize the potential. And the few scare moments there were to be found throughout the movie ended up as being nothing impressive, mere moments that you shrugged off with a casual shake of the head.I will say that the atmosphere in the movie was good, and Thomas Della Bella was good at building up the suspense, but he just lacked the conviction to bring it to a fulfilling climax. As such, then the movie suffered terribly, and ended up being less than mediocre.For a horror movie, then the only really frightening thing about the movie was the lack of scary moments and things that actually made you want to turn on the light. It was a dull, slow experience if you are looking for a good scare.The acting in "The Remains" was adequate, and it was Todd Lowe who was carrying the movie with his performance.Usually a good horror movie also has fairly good special effects. "The Remains" hardly used any special effects. So don't expect this to be a glorious Hollywood special effects galore.The best thing about the movie was actually the ending. That took me by surprise, and I hadn't seen that coming. So that was an upside to an otherwise flaccid and monotone movie."The Remains" is the type of horror movie that you watch once, then you bag and tag it, put it on the shelf, most likely never to see the light of day again.

benlukeryder The Remains - 2016Before I start, I am forewarning you for spoilers. Only minor ones, but I don't want to ruin the film for anyone wishing to watch it. Although it would be a mistake to.The film follows a family of 4 who are moving into a new house after the recent passing of the protagonist's, John's, wife. The film begins with short scene to set the background and foreshadow certain items for later on. Once this is over we see the family on the way to view the property. Two young weird children, an ignorant teen with a secret boyfriend, whose existence adds nothing to the plot, and a paranoid father. They arrive at the house, meet the agent selling it and then move in pretty much instantly. None of the kids are happy about it, the family have no idea of the buildings background and to round it all up, the acting makes you cringe. And we aren't even 20 minutes in. A few more scenes follow containing strange happenings and more bad acting before eventually the two younger kids venture into the attic and find a wooden box full of mysterious items; which you will remember from the first scene of the film if you hadn't thrown the disc away by this point. The girl becomes attached to the doll found in the box and then everything become "freaky". The acting begins to quickly get worse and the camera work is poorly executed. The lines delivered are weak and have terribly awkward silences between them.Skipping all the needless scenes between, the highlight of the film for me was when John dreams about beating his son's skull in with a baseball bat. Not because I was so sick of the kids acting and wanted to do it myself, but because it is the best acted scene in the entire movie. The look John gives whilst he's doing it genuinely makes him look like he's going mad, the fake blood used looked realistic (well done fx crew) and it just wasn't expected which I liked. It gave the film a moment when you though 'maybe the film will pick up after this great and slightly disturbing scene'. Spoiler alert.. I'm afraid not. More bad camera work, more pointless scenes, poor jump scares and the ending scene reminded me of a children's comedy on TV made to amuse 11 year old kids.Whoever wrote and directed the film was desperately trying to live up to the films James Wan has directed and written in the past. After watching the trailer, I was excited and had hope for it. But now I've been left disappointed and feel like my time has been wasted. The only reason this film should be watched is so drama students can learn how not to act so we may hope that no more let down horror and thriller films come out in the near future.The truth hurts. See you in the review section.

begob A family moves house after the death of the mother, only to find themselves trapped by the history of their new home as an evil spirit takes over ...Standard haunted house tale, so it needs a bit of spice and cleverness to impress. The outstanding feature is the photography, with plenty of angles and movement and depth and detail. But they might regret the decision to light almost the entire movie brightly - shadows often obscure a horror tale, but this one needed more.The acting was OK, especially the little girl, although even she struggled with some lifeless dialogue. And I think that's where the problem is - the writing and direction. The origin story didn't play through, and we weren't led to the source of the evil. Some crucial scenes were handled badly and turned out underwhelming. Plus there were some spots where dialogue was repeated to no extra effect, and one of the female characters could have been folded into another without harming the story.The music was pretty good, but laid on too thick.So it's a first time feature for the director/writer. A bit sloppy, and lacking conviction. But it definitely doesn't deserve one star ratings.ps. The cinematographer has a similar movie in production, so that could be interesting.