From Black

I was intrigued into watching this one by seeing the trailer for movie first. I am a seasoned horror fan. I have been watching horror films made from the 1920's till the present. I also watch foreign language horror films. Occultism has taken a recent trend into mainstream and independent horror movies. I don't know what the agenda is, but films of this sort get me disturbed. Especially if the younger generation of moviegoers are watching these types of films. This movie is about a drug-addicted mother who loses her young son while in a stupor. When she wakes up, her son is gone. Try as she might her son is never found. Years later while in a group of similar people who are discussing their problems, a man approaches her and tells her that he knows a ritual that will bring her son back. Desperate to get her son back at any cost the woman yields to all the man's terms. Watch the movie to see what happens next... Verdict: the movie is not all that bad for a one-time viewing. The film held my attention through-out which is rare. The acting, photography, background-music and direction is professional. The special-effects though very meager are inspired from Clive Barker's Hellraiser. I loved the special effects however short they were in the film. This is the only plus point of the movie. Movies like these definitely spawn a sequel and I won't be surprised if this one does. Shall I recommend another film similar to this? It's called Pumpkinhead(1988) directed by the legendary special-effects wizard Stan Winston(Predator, The Terminator, Aliens) and stars the legendary actor Lance Henriksen(Hard Target, The Nature Of The Beast, Johnny Handsome, Millennium TV Series).

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From Black (2023) is a movie that was released on Shudder last week. The storyline follows a woman who became a drug addict after her son mysteriously disappeared. As she is released from the clinic and begins adjusting to society she is approached by an individual who offers to tell her what happened to her son that day, but at what cost? This movie is directed by Thomas Marchese (Fallen) and stars Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect), John Ales (Euphoria), Jennifer Lafleur (Nope) and Travis Hammer (Godless) This is another one of those movies where nothing happens for over an hour into the movie. The storyline, acting and dialogue were all mediocre to bad. There's some scenes that were not needed at all (the baby daddy scene). I will say the first action scene was really good. The mask, makeup and costume of the villain was solid. As the movie progresses and the main character evolves, this ends up concluding better than it starts. Overall, this is a very average addition to the horror genre with nothing new. I would score this a 3.5/10 and only recommend it to diehard horror enthusiasts.

source: From Black

This is an interesting film. The setting it opens with is different. A woman in recovery wrestling with the loss of her son. The drug/recovery aspect is portrayed with a degree of focus and relative accuracy. Something you don't see in alot of movies. As the movie starts to kick into gear it offers a pretty compelling and engaging journey into it's central theme. Unfortunately, this movie has a very severe problem. The acting. The main actress has a crucial flaw in her acting. Whenever she should have a grimace or sadness in her face she is smiling. And it looks like a smile. She is competent in the rest of her acting though. But this flaw in her acting is too severe to overlook. I think it comes from a misguided film school tip of how to portray emotion. I will explain it like this: Alot of times we will see competent actors whose mannerisms when crying is very close to laughing. This is something that is taught in more dubious film schooling. That's why they do it. And, of course, the result is dubious. I think why she smiles when she's supposed to be grimacing is something she was taught in film school. It's strange because her acting is otherwise adequate. But such a severe flaw in acting cannot really be overlooked or forgiven. I liked the movie quite a bit while I was watching it. To me, the main story thread was a little new and different. For me it was pretty engaging. But in the end it's just an average movie. I can see why it's rate so low here, with her strangely flawed acting. But for me, even with the flawed acting from the lead, I'll still give it a 6 because it does portray it's main theme/story thread in a good and relatively compelling way. In this movie, everything is building to the final reveal. But this film does lack teeth. It's ultimately pretty tame. This movie also has what I call a "modern horror feel". What I mean by that is slick, simple and streamlined. A very simple concept and a very straightforward execution. An example of a movie with a "modern horror feel" would be Smile. Though I enjoyed that movie it still had that slick, simple, streamlined feel to it. Films like The Harbinger(2022) for example, fall into this category for me. Often films with this "modern horror feel" lack teeth. Or at least sharp teeth. Now this movie has a sister cop interrogating and having close involvement with the main character, her sister. This is severely unrealistic because a police officer would not be allowed to be involved in the investigation and interrogation of their own sister because of the very clear conflict of interest. No police department is going to allow that. In the end, this movie doesn't go too hard with the horror and that is an ultimate weakness of this film. There is a quite interesting aspect of the final reveal but in the end it doesn't save the movie from the "decent-ish" category. The final end is meant to shock and close with an umph but it fails and just comes across as a cop out(for me anyway)

If you love scary movies you need to see this one. The director does a great job of playing with our senses and keeping the viewer on edge - the whole ride! This director is going to do amazing things in the future, you can just tell from this terrific outing. Anna Camp is always great. Obviously. Here she really plays a different character than we've ever seen her play before. The girl's got acting chops. And the creature is really cool. Overall, I loved it. This is a fantastic date movie for a Friday night! Get the popcorn, keep some gypsy charms nearby to protect you from evil spirits, but...don't turn down the lights! This movie is way too scary!!

source: From Black