Hard to watch, but not for the reasons you would expect.
I watched this over several sittings, since it just couldn't keep me focused. But I was still engaged with the general premise.
A social media influencer is doing a livestream while her friend is held captive by a villain. The villain instructs the influencer via text message, and if she doesn't do what he wants, he'll harm the friend.
That's a decent premise. Where the movie suffers is in the writing and the acting.
I'm willing to forgive acting, since this is clearly cheap, and made using whatever friends were available.
The writing is a problem. But again, it's not just the lines. It's actually the way that the story is developed.
Our protagonist has some major problems as a character. First, she's nice and plain. She's supposed to be an influencer. She needs to be charismatic. She needs to be exciting. Why would people be watching her livestream if she's just a nice little nobody?
Second, as a protagonist, she's passive. She obeys her commands without question, she doesn't try to solve her problem. The result is a story that turns into a gross-out comedy, where she rubs crap on her face and eats a raw fish. Her decisions have no consequences, because she's just agreeing to keep doing this.
Pacing is poor, since the actors seem to mostly be family and friends.
There's the "twist" ending, which is mostly forseeable. The killer makes an appearance, and it's mostly obvious who he is, and our protagonist comes across as a moron for not spotting it.
It's bad... but on the technical side, it's completely watchable. On the screenwriting side... more thought was needed.
I watched this over several sittings, since it just couldn't keep me focused. But I was still engaged with the general premise.
A social media influencer is doing a livestream while her friend is held captive by a villain. The villain instructs the influencer via text message, and if she doesn't do what he wants, he'll harm the friend.
That's a decent premise. Where the movie suffers is in the writing and the acting.
I'm willing to forgive acting, since this is clearly cheap, and made using whatever friends were available.
The writing is a problem. But again, it's not just the lines. It's actually the way that the story is developed.
Our protagonist has some major problems as a character. First, she's nice and plain. She's supposed to be an influencer. She needs to be charismatic. She needs to be exciting. Why would people be watching her livestream if she's just a nice little nobody?
Second, as a protagonist, she's passive. She obeys her commands without question, she doesn't try to solve her problem. The result is a story that turns into a gross-out comedy, where she rubs crap on her face and eats a raw fish. Her decisions have no consequences, because she's just agreeing to keep doing this.
Pacing is poor, since the actors seem to mostly be family and friends.
There's the "twist" ending, which is mostly forseeable. The killer makes an appearance, and it's mostly obvious who he is, and our protagonist comes across as a moron for not spotting it.
It's bad... but on the technical side, it's completely watchable. On the screenwriting side... more thought was needed.