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
Premise - 15/20 - Another Groundhog Day scenario? I'm all in. Why not see how different types of people handle the same situation?
Cast/characters - 17/20 - Kyle Allen (The Inbetween) is proving to be a very charming lead, and Kathryn Newton (Freaky) is wonderful again. The characters were nuanced and were developed well.
Plot - 18/20 - The developing friendship between the two characters took more of a front seat in this movie than the comedy focus of Groundhog Day. The story of finding all of the good things that were happening while no one else is watching was a fantastic idea. The ending was very satisfying.
Dialogue - 15/20 - The banter between the leads around the deeper conversation pulls in the viewer. Their drive to understand each other was laid out well. Despite the fact that conversations often get repeated in this premise, I enjoyed the dialogue.
Setting - 15/20 - The little town was explored thoroughly, and it was pleasant to see all the different details as the characters played out their ideas.
80/100 - 4/5 stars - The leads have great chemistry, the supporting characters are charming, and the plot is wonderful. I'm really glad I landed on this movie to watch.
So for those people wondering what is up with episode numbering in season 5 - 10, know that the info comes from tvdb. There the principle is that numbering is based on original numbering - but as far as I understand History channel decided to renumber episodes from s5-s8 and spread them out so they became s5-s10. And then the started making episodes named from s11. So according to original numbering there is no s9 and s10, but after the renumbering there are.
Go to thetvdb and you will see that s9+s10 is not there. It seems that s9+s10 was imported into trakt.tv anyhow so that means that s9+s10 now duplicates episodes from the previous seasons. Update Aug2020: trakt.tv now correctly removed season 9 and 10. Update Mar2021: And now they are back again. ;)
See more in this discussion (among many) on tvdb forums: https://forums.thetvdb.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=29976
I gave this a 4/10 review, why?: I think some episodes are ok, but there is much recycled content across the series it just seems very lazy. So much repetition. And then I really do like that none of the episodes go in depth with their so-called evidence. Show us the texts! And explain the science in greater detail! Show us the full original reports instead of superficial second hand stories by untrustworthy pseudo historians. This could have been so much better.
