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Mind Games (2014)
Absolutely brilliant! And, extra points for having a lead character that has Bipolar!
This show is fantastic and really engages you, with two brothers who each have their own unique backstory with challenges giving them depth.
The relationships are tangled and the other characters are exciting as well!
The first episode was great, the second episode, EVEN BETTER!!
I highly highly recommend this show, it is clever and just what i was looking for!
Altitude (2010)
The Monster isn't in it enough
So, yeah, the monster is on the poster, but it doesn't come in until around 50 minutes into the movie, and even then it's just tossed aside in favor of internal conflicts.
Blame (2018)
Step forward in some places,
Jason is back with another film that's creepy atmosphere is unsettling.
While the camera work, the scare factor and the atmosphere is set up really nicely!
The beginning's intro is just a bit too long, my attention span grew tiresome after watching the approach to the house with the earsplitting background music.
However, the camera work mixed with the music, once inside the house is phenomenal!
Especially that climb up the stairs!!!
However, my attention span just wandered.
I think that there needs to be some sort of set up closer to the beginning before that "Blame" intro for the viewer to become oriented, as:
SPOILER****
When the camera operator finds the masked figure in the house, they exclaim "Oh shit" it is unclear from the beginning whether or not this is a found footage as the camera work is so perfect and precise that it feels like it is simple photography and stock footage.
****************
While Jason seems to have aced the atmosphere and camera work,
it is on the pre-production side and timing that seems to be slowing him down now.
Very close to becoming great!
Dark Chooses Light (2018)
Feels like a step backwards for Jason
While I was really looking forward to Jason's next film, after watching "Donovan's Animal"
I was severely disappointed with this followup film in Jason's collection.
While "Donovan's Animal" had great feats,
it feels like "Dark Chooses Light" was a step backwards for the filmmaker.
There is no variation in camera angles,
and the dialogue feels forced in communicating ideas that may have been able to be communicated through the artistic deviations we saw in his earlier works.
Acting was stagnant.
Donovan Hillock's Animal (2018)
Coming into his own, on the brink of becoming a master filmmaker
Once again, Jason nails the title sequence with a great atmosphere setter!
Jason as a filmmaker, since his first film has really started to come into his own, as he begins to master the various pieces of both story and camera work.
However, the production quality is still subpar in places-Sound Mixing-ambient is something that needs to be focused on in his work going forward.
I am excited to see what his next projects display!
SPOILERS****!!!!
The opening shot is great, however, once again it is the production side that brings it down.
The audio of someone walking on a path is heard which breaks the vibe set up by the birds chirping, creepy ambient noise, and the eerie movement of the camera on the bridge.
While the sound of footsteps brings the production quality down, upon spotting the lead actor: "Donovan"-Jason- the quality matter is forgotten.
The actor conveys an unhinged mind set that makes you uneasy,
this paired with the eerie movements of the camera create a tension that is suspenseful.
When the music enters simultaneously as the victim it peaks.
However, despite this rise in perfection,
for some reason, though i may be being hyper critical here,
it is the walk of the girl that seems to throw this off.
I'm not sure who is the result of this little detail, but the actresses walk seems to be aimless, and yet not full of intention-as in the actress appears tense as if she was just told to walk, and she did.
The reason that this walk strikes me so is because it seems extremely out of place with the setting.
The road that this scene is filmed on appears to have very little to no sidewalk, and no signs of civilization anywhere near. And a perfect place for the titular character-crazy as he is-to be stalking people.
So my question is, WHY is this character just aimlessly walking here with no intentions whatsoever???
Now, with all due respect to the horror film genre, there usually IS a scene where that sort of thing happens, but the actor who is doing the thing that makes no sense is usually doing it WITH A PURPOSE.
Suspension of disbelief can only go so far.
And then, to make things even worse, the girl just randomly walks off camera like she was told to, without real intention whatsoever.
Second 0:48 hits, there is a sudden blackout and when the scene returns some guy (presumably Donovan) is crawling on all fours, and makes it underneath this plant without touching it, then chases the girl-we hear a scream and the camera does the rest of the work, which shows great improvement from his last works I've seen.
All focus is on the camera next as it slowly approaches what has happened to the girl.
GREAT TENSION here!
It appears that the girl is shaking from the pain of being eaten.-feels very real
My only qualm here is, that it shows a bit too much of the girl when we go around the corner. My issue with this is, we are led to believe that the creature/Donovan-now sporting a Wolf mask, is eating her. However, we see very little blood.
If the camera were to have moved just the tiniest bit to the left more, we would've seen where the creature was eating.
OVERALL:
While the camera work and acting has improved significantly, it is the production side matching up with those two that still needs some work.
Donovan Hillock's Animal (2018)
Coming into his own, on the brink of becoming a master filmmaker
Once again, Jason nails the title sequence with a great atmosphere setter!
Jason as a filmmaker, since his first film has really started to come into his own, as he begins to master the various pieces of both story and camera work.
However, the production quality is still subpar in places-Sound Mixing-ambient is something that needs to be focused on in his work going forward.
I am excited to see what his next projects display!
SPOILERS****!!!!
The opening shot is great, however, once again it is the production side that brings it down.
The audio of someone walking on a path is heard which breaks the vibe set up by the birds chirping, creepy ambient noise, and the eerie movement of the camera on the bridge.
While the sound of footsteps brings the production quality down, upon spotting the lead actor: "Donovan"-Jason- the quality matter is forgotten.
The actor conveys an unhinged mind set that makes you uneasy,
this paired with the eerie movements of the camera create a tension that is suspenseful.
When the music enters simultaneously as the victim it peaks.
However, despite this rise in perfection,
for some reason, though i may be being hyper critical here,
it is the walk of the girl that seems to throw this off.
I'm not sure who is the result of this little detail, but the actresses walk seems to be aimless, and yet not full of intention-as in the actress appears tense as if she was just told to walk, and she did.
The reason that this walk strikes me so is because it seems extremely out of place with the setting.
The road that this scene is filmed on appears to have very little to no sidewalk, and no signs of civilization anywhere near. And a perfect place for the titular character-crazy as he is-to be stalking people.
So my question is, WHY is this character just aimlessly walking here with no intentions whatsoever???
Now, with all due respect to the horror film genre, there usually IS a scene where that sort of thing happens, but the actor who is doing the thing that makes no sense is usually doing it WITH A PURPOSE.
Suspension of disbelief can only go so far.
And then, to make things even worse, the girl just randomly walks off camera like she was told to, without real intention whatsoever.
Second 0:48 hits, there is a sudden blackout and when the scene returns some guy (presumably Donovan) is crawling on all fours, and makes it underneath this plant without touching it, then chases the girl-we hear a scream and the camera does the rest of the work, which shows great improvement from his last works I've seen.
All focus is on the camera next as it slowly approaches what has happened to the girl.
GREAT TENSION here!
It appears that the girl is shaking from the pain of being eaten.-feels very real
My only qualm here is, that it shows a bit too much of the girl when we go around the corner. My issue with this is, we are led to believe that the creature/Donovan-now sporting a Wolf mask, is eating her. However, we see very little blood.
If the camera were to have moved just the tiniest bit to the left more, we would've seen where the creature was eating.
OVERALL:
While the camera work and acting has improved significantly, it is the production side matching up with those two that still needs some work.
Failure to Listen (2016)
Very Short
With a run time of under a minute the title of this one demands a lot and must provide in a short time.
The acting feels overdone.
While the slow camera work works to an extent,
Overall this feels like it is a joke.
To give Jason credit: walking the line between making something horror and comedy is a very thin line.
It appears here that this line is misunderstood based on the final product here.
Noise in the Kitchen (2012)
For a first film this shows promise for what is to come
As i stated in the subject line, this video shows a lot of promise for what is to come from Jason!
While the production quality is low-amateur, the story has great promise and i seriously see the potential for this to be adapted into a feature!
SPOILERS!**************
The film's title sequence is suspenseful.
However, when the camera starts rolling there are a couple things that the viewer is immediately faced with the question:
Is this going to be a found footage film?
And that was something that right from the start threw me off, as it walked that line between artistic cinematography, found footage, and zero experience.
But I stuck with it when that first hint of mystery hits, when the camera glimpses a hooded figure pass under the window.
Though in terms of Horror movie cliches it has been used before, in the found footage category-especially going into this one with no context at all, it is chilling.
But what I had trouble with following this is the production quality and direction.
The next 2-3 minutes consists of just audio conversation-the contents of which are hard to understand due to production quality, save for the mention of "the place being haunted"
The film continues on with a scare.
Something that I must give credit to is the poltergeist effect!
Despite the low production quality elsewhere, the poltergeist effect worked so well that it took me out of critic mode and sucked me into the story.
Overall the major points that this film falter and succeeds are as follows:
THE STORY-while the story isn't exactly clear, from what i got from it it seemed creepy. However it was the execution of which felt jumbled.
CINEMATOGRAPHY: I think one of the things that going forward Jason needs to focus on-having never before seen any of his films- is the cinematography. It seemed to me that there were a lot of great techniques that were present in the film, although they were included, none of them seemed to hold dominant, and as a result it felt disorganized and displaces the viewer from the story.
DIRECTON: I think a little more time on cementing the direction of the film with the script needs to happen in order for the film to really hit home!
SPECIAL EFFECTS-Make up: The scene with the two dead people is reminiscent of CREEPSHOW (1982') and i loved it, Poltergeist scene was great too!