Shook | Film Review

This is another Shudder Original - there are so many on the platform that it's been so fun working my way through them. Here's my review of Shook!

Mia (Daisye Tutor) is a social media influencer. When her friends' lives are threatened, she has to solve a series of games in order to save them. But is everything as it seems?

I didn't love this film, which was annoying because the premise of a serial killer targeting social media stars is very interesting, and current. But this film went to a few different places that I wasn't a fan of.

I found it really hard to tell whether the film was supposed to be a comedy or an ordinary horror. While most things are presented as ordinary, the deaths of some characters are so comical that you have to laugh.

There were times when it felt like no one, not even the actors, were taking the film seriously.  

Mia was a really bland character. We never really knew anything about her, and after a while we just stop trying to learn anything. It's like no one put much effort into creating her.

The films follows quite a generic formula. I found that you can ignore what is happening on screen, or get distracted, and still completely understand what's happening. Some of this is due to unnecessary time wasted, but also as I said, the formula for the first half of the film is repetitive.

In keeping with the point above, the film is a slow burn. Which is fine. But it's really difficult to have a film that's not even an hour and a half long be a successful slow burn. This film doesn't manage it.

Not only was the pacing off, but I feel like the film could have been helped by developing the background characters a bit more. Of course Mia should also have been properly developed, but her friends and family play a significant role, so we should have known a bit more about them.

Even with its 1 hr 28 minute runtime, it feels a lot longer than it is, and at the same time, nothing really happens. After a while, you don't really care how it's going to end.

Overall, I appreciate the fact that this film tried to be something original, and I did (and still do) like the initial idea of the film. But the end result just felt a bit pointless.   

3/10