So I've seen a few low budget horrors, that looks like some college friends made it with a shoebox budget, so I don't mind it looked cheap. However, some of the sets did indeed look very settish, it looked more like a dungeon in an amusement park than a real dungeon. I liked a lot that the Polish characters spoke untranslated Polish, and I found the caricature of Poland funny.
The basic problem with the movie was that the authors seemingly had concentrated on the last final plot twist - the last scene was very good indeed! - and all that came before it was more or less unimportant random buildup. Almost no creativity had been spend on character motivation along the way - it was established that the Carmen character was selfish and get the story at all costs, so during the movie they just had the characters barge into trouble constantly with her leading - the intern just tagging along like a dog and her boyfriend complaining about it, but following anyway without much ado. You need to work more on the single scenes, small things like explain why they couldn't find their car again - it shouldn't be far away, but they just completely gave up finding it ever again. preferring to steal another one at gunpoint! I didn't get why they lost the car.
The intern character was terrible, being completely devoid of any motivation or anything. She was there for fodder, because the movie needed another person killed to explain what the ritual was. There was no explanation why she wants to follow a crazy person to Poland. She needed more scenes, to give her a reason to come along. Why not spend 30 seconds explaining she wants to do the Poland thing to get famous instantly because ... uhm, she needs money desperately for her medical bills or something. Just make her more interesting, she's in the movie anyway, so make her interesting. Give her a quirky sense of humour, have her constantly talk about her weight problems, anythinh.
The beginning of the movie was *really* bad. The whole thing about Carmen just flatly disobeying her boss was weird - I was not sure if she was supposed to be stupid or smart? If the moviemakers had made it more obvious that this was potentially a biiig media story, yes OK, I get why she would go to Poland, and we know she is a smart and selfish Lois Lane kind of reporter. But a story about a random dead tourist to me just isn't such a big story, that you want to risk your career for it - I don't really see why it is better than the bee story she scoffed at. (Why she didn't want do to that, seemed no problem to wrap that up before going to Poland?) If the script writers had made the dead guy the son of a president or pop star or something, well that could explain why it was a potential scoop.
I think also they should have included the intern in the buildup, make it partially her idea to bail on the bees and go to Poland, and have her lie blatantly to the photographer. It would make it more like they girls, were the evil ones and he deserved to survive, and it was for a reason they looked at the statue.
Giving it a 6 anyway because it has some memorably scenes, I feel like I am being generous.
The basic problem with the movie was that the authors seemingly had concentrated on the last final plot twist - the last scene was very good indeed! - and all that came before it was more or less unimportant random buildup. Almost no creativity had been spend on character motivation along the way - it was established that the Carmen character was selfish and get the story at all costs, so during the movie they just had the characters barge into trouble constantly with her leading - the intern just tagging along like a dog and her boyfriend complaining about it, but following anyway without much ado. You need to work more on the single scenes, small things like explain why they couldn't find their car again - it shouldn't be far away, but they just completely gave up finding it ever again. preferring to steal another one at gunpoint! I didn't get why they lost the car.
The intern character was terrible, being completely devoid of any motivation or anything. She was there for fodder, because the movie needed another person killed to explain what the ritual was. There was no explanation why she wants to follow a crazy person to Poland. She needed more scenes, to give her a reason to come along. Why not spend 30 seconds explaining she wants to do the Poland thing to get famous instantly because ... uhm, she needs money desperately for her medical bills or something. Just make her more interesting, she's in the movie anyway, so make her interesting. Give her a quirky sense of humour, have her constantly talk about her weight problems, anythinh.
The beginning of the movie was *really* bad. The whole thing about Carmen just flatly disobeying her boss was weird - I was not sure if she was supposed to be stupid or smart? If the moviemakers had made it more obvious that this was potentially a biiig media story, yes OK, I get why she would go to Poland, and we know she is a smart and selfish Lois Lane kind of reporter. But a story about a random dead tourist to me just isn't such a big story, that you want to risk your career for it - I don't really see why it is better than the bee story she scoffed at. (Why she didn't want do to that, seemed no problem to wrap that up before going to Poland?) If the script writers had made the dead guy the son of a president or pop star or something, well that could explain why it was a potential scoop.
I think also they should have included the intern in the buildup, make it partially her idea to bail on the bees and go to Poland, and have her lie blatantly to the photographer. It would make it more like they girls, were the evil ones and he deserved to survive, and it was for a reason they looked at the statue.
Giving it a 6 anyway because it has some memorably scenes, I feel like I am being generous.