Attractively filmed Garbage

Rating: 2/10 (18 June 2018)

I felt strongly enough about this presentation to write a review and perhaps
flag a few pointers that may help people decide whether to pay out money
to see this or not. I love a great supernatural story, well told and effectively
put across on screen. Starting at the beginning there is a promising opening
scene after the death of the Grandmother. It is poignant and eerie and Toni Collette is unnerving and strange in her potrayal as the not quite grieving Daughter.To give this film it's stripes it does handle creepy and atmospheric scene's well however it's downfall comes when it attempts anything except slow, crawling panning shots, and it is shot VERY slowly. You can almost hear the camera creaking as it moves seemingly forever down a corridor or across treetops, or through a window, or around a spooky room. So the strength of this movie lies in it's atmosphere and it's weakness lies in any attempt to make an interesting or coherent story. As it progresses, after an insufferably long period of time ( I like a story set-up but seriously? ) the performances become more hysteria than reallistic,and the plot ( Yes there is one!!? ) goes uncontrollably off road and hits a symbollic lamp-post. Perhaps if they had stuck to the more ambiguous mental health aspect of Collette's character rather than leaning to the more obvious plot thread it might have made for a more intriguing story.
As for high points, the daughter's performance is unsettling and her story arc
goes to a place I don't think anyone would expect... It is attractively filmed
with all the right technical stuff going on.The advertising has been sinfully
misleading, clever but misleading and many people will leave the theatre
disappointed and perhaps a bit confused. There were about eight people
in the Sunday night screening I attended and NO-ONE enjoyed it.
As a final point which may come across as sarcastic, it has been compared
to " The Witch " in a number of reviews. Bull-crap. The Witch was a masterfully
handled psychological horror piece and this IMO garbage is not. If you were thrilled and delighted by the theatrical event that was " Mother " then you may well enjoy this. For the majority of us who enjoy our movies with hype they can
comfortably live up to it will doubtless be forgotten and put down to being
a bad dream. A beautifully shot, ridiculous and non-sensical bad dream.
And if you want ridiculous then prepare yourself for the last fifteen minutes.
For a " Horror " movie it's very funny. I'm not sure if that was it's intention.