Assuming that this is intentionally meant to be camp is doing it a service it doesn’t deserve, I think. Yes, there’s goofy and trashy stuff in it, but they play it mostly straight with the presentation, i.e. most of this feels like it’s trying to be an actual movie. It’s not as over the top and entertaining as it needed to be, like it’s certainly no Malignant or Drag me to Hell. Instead, it’s one of the dullest experiences I’ve had in a long time. All of the actors are instant razzie frontrunners (especially Allison Williams, holy shit what a trainwreck of a performance) and the writing constantly veers between human dialogue as interpreted by aliens (or M Night Shyamalan), and unintentionally (yes, unintentionally) funny garbage. I know it’s unintentional, because the intentional jokes that are worked into the script aren’t funny at all. The story is of course laughable and completely predictable. So many unnecessary, boring scenes, as well as quick bits that are clearly aimed to just be memes on TikTok. Even the crazy stuff felt fairly restrained to me, it’s not nearly bonkers enough to become entertaining. For example, don’t go into this expecting more of the dance sequence, because all of the best bits are in the trailer. Finally, the filmmaking and visual style are instantly forgettable. Not a single interesting shot or artistic choice in the whole thing. In short, nothing fun or clever about it, just very typical January horror kitsch that was probably only greenlit as a tax write-off for Jason Blum.
Review by JordyVIP 8BlockedParent2023-01-02T18:57:36Z— updated 2023-01-04T20:23:07Z
Assuming that this is intentionally meant to be camp is doing it a service it doesn’t deserve, I think.
Yes, there’s goofy and trashy stuff in it, but they play it mostly straight with the presentation, i.e. most of this feels like it’s trying to be an actual movie. It’s not as over the top and entertaining as it needed to be, like it’s certainly no Malignant or Drag me to Hell.
Instead, it’s one of the dullest experiences I’ve had in a long time.
All of the actors are instant razzie frontrunners (especially Allison Williams, holy shit what a trainwreck of a performance) and the writing constantly veers between human dialogue as interpreted by aliens (or M Night Shyamalan), and unintentionally (yes, unintentionally) funny garbage. I know it’s unintentional, because the intentional jokes that are worked into the script aren’t funny at all.
The story is of course laughable and completely predictable. So many unnecessary, boring scenes, as well as quick bits that are clearly aimed to just be memes on TikTok. Even the crazy stuff felt fairly restrained to me, it’s not nearly bonkers enough to become entertaining. For example, don’t go into this expecting more of the dance sequence, because all of the best bits are in the trailer.
Finally, the filmmaking and visual style are instantly forgettable. Not a single interesting shot or artistic choice in the whole thing.
In short, nothing fun or clever about it, just very typical January horror kitsch that was probably only greenlit as a tax write-off for Jason Blum.
1.5/10