Bria Lou Reviews

  I'd never heard of this film before, and went in fairly blind, so I knew almost nothing about it when I pressed play. This film was fine, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. It grabs you almost from the very beginning with the shock of the opening scene. Having no idea what was about to happen, it really takes you by surprise. This is a ghost story, and one of the most interesting things about it is the images of the ghosts. If we weren't on the main character's side before, seeing what she sees endears us to her. Even though there aren't a lot of special effects, the make-up alone makes the ghosts look scary. I liked the horror scenes a lot more than the world-building ones. I didn't care much about the background characters so it would have been nice if a bit less time was spent on them. Despite being a shorter movie, it feels longer than it is, in both a good and bad way. Good because it feels like we get a full story with real characters. Bad bec...

  When a family are trapped in their home with no way out, they have to work together to protect themselves from the dangerous threat outside. This film was on my radar for a while before it came out because I'm a huge fan of Wagner Moura, so I was excitedly anticipating it! There are some major flaws with this movie, but I did enjoy it. The first point, which is why so many people watched this as soon as it came out and are still watching it - the concept is so inventive and original! The starting point is really simple, but could go in so many different directions that you really want to see what happens. Even just watching you feel trapped, both in the film's house with the family, but also in your own house! It's so claustrophobic that watching it becomes an intense experience. The cast are all great and play their parts really well. The young actors are fantastic and felt really authentic, as did all of the performances. These are characters that we can really root for...

  While on holiday in the Yorkshire Dales, a group of six friends find a backpack containing more money than they've ever seen. But when the group becomes split on deciding whether to hand the money in to the police, long-held secrets are exposed, and the friends discover that they don't know each other as well as they thought they did. T.M. Logan is my favourite author, so his books are always pre-ordered as soon as a new one is announced, and this one was no different. Unfortunately I didn't love this one as much as some of Logan's other novels. I did like that it got right into the story. Everything started really quickly, the money was found before we even knew who most of the characters were, which worked in its favour because the story was a lot more interesting than the characters themselves. From the beginning, I was intrigued to see how it would end, but again that was more about the story than the characters. It moved quite slowly after the initial excitement ...

  Two unrelated people are forced to work together to expose government secrets. I heard really mixed things about this film before seeing it - from it's the best film of the year to it's so bad it's not worth watching, so I was looking forward to seeing it. I too had mixed feelings about it. I actually liked it, but there were definitely huge flaws, so I can understand why a lot of people don't. From the start, it throws you into the situation with no context, in a way that's jarring and makes it difficult to build a connection with the characters. It's not always necessary to connect with the characters but I feel like that connection really would have helped the film. The cast is great, and for the most part the actors do a great job with their characters. That being said, some of the characters had more interesting stories than others. I found I was more interested in the character played by Emily Blunt than anyone else. But when you're interested in the...

  A distant father and daughter (Steve Zahn and Audrey Clair Zahn) are forced to reconnect when he chaperones a dance competition. I watched the trailer for this film and immediately wanted to watch it. It seemed like it would be really sweet but also potentially quite powerful, so I was looking forward to it. And that's kind of what it was; a sweet, powerful story that I enjoyed watching. The filmmakers came up with a really interesting, original way of showing the parallels in the characters' lives, and it allows the audience to build connections with the father and daughter simultaneously. And the whole way through, the film makes such good use out of a split screen and really uses this method to give us much more of an insight into the characters than we would have had otherwise. All the characters have such fun dynamics. It's really nice seeing them interact. The casting is great. The fact that the characters are actually father and daughter adds a beautiful layer to t...

  I'd never heard of this movie, let alone knew that David Bowie starred in a horror movie, so I was intrigued about this one. Though also a bit sceptical, as I don't always love vampire-themed horror movies. I liked this film a lot. The beginning is intriguing. We're kind of thrown in at the deep end without knowing much about the characters, and figure things out as we go. It's not surprising that music was such a large focus, but it ties in with the story so easily. Whether it's actual singing, playing or the score, it all becomes a major feature of telling this story. I love that the film plays with the ideas we've always had about vampires - particularly the difference between eternal life and eternal youth, which in many vampire movies are treated like one and the same. Not only does it explore this, but it actually bases the story on it. The visuals, including the make-up, are done so well. The ageing looks incredibly realistic, the gory scenes are done w...