Malevolent
I found it entertaining, especially because of its starting idea. I like that angle of people going around deceiving those who believe in presences, ghosts and poltergeists, staging paranormal little shows to get money, until they run into something that may not be so fake. It is a simple premise, but effective, because it plays with an attractive contradiction: the supposed ghost hunters do not believe in anything, or believe just enough to take advantage of others, and suddenly they begin to lose the ground beneath their feet.
The best part is in that opening, when the film presents the group, the fraudulent business and the feeling that everything can go wrong. There is something interesting in seeing how they exploit other people's pain, how they turn fear into spectacle and how the story returns that lie to them in the form of a real threat. There it had material for a much sharper horror film: a film about scammers facing the very thing they used to fake.
Florence Pugh already has presence, even in a minor film. It is not one of her great performances, nor does the film give her everything it could, but you can tell she holds the screen better than the whole around her. Her character works because she is not just an impostor: she carries a complicated relationship with the supernatural, with her mother, with guilt and with that ability to see or feel things that others reduce to a trick. She helps the film have something of an emotional center.
I also liked Celia Imrie, who brings the most disturbing and unpleasant part of the story. When she appears, the film gains unease. Her character allows the story to become a little dirtier and the house to stop being just a setting for scares and become a place with memory, cruelty and secrets. It is a shame the film does not make better use of that line, because that is where its murkiest material was.
The problem is that the film loses strength. It begins with a clear idea and a certain hook, but then becomes a much more conventional haunted-house story. There are dark rooms, noises, apparitions, secrets from the past and moments designed to scare, but they do not always have the necessary intensity. It is not a disaster, but you can feel that it could have been much scarier.
The tone never quite finds a strong personality either. It never becomes a truly unsettling psychological horror film, or a memorable ghost story, or a cruel thriller about deceivers receiving their punishment. It remains a decent mixture, with some effective moments, but also with many predictable stretches. You can see where it is going, and it rarely manages to truly surprise you.
Even so, I do not think it is a film to despise. It has a contained running time, it is easy to watch, the premise catches your attention and there are a couple of scenes with enough nastiness to keep the interest alive. It is not one of those Netflix horror films that seem made only to fill the catalogue with no idea behind them. Here there is an idea, even if the development is not up to what it promised.
I was more interested in the fake-medium side than in the ghosts themselves. That dimension of fraud, guilt and taking advantage of other people's suffering seems much more suggestive to me than the scares. The film would have been better if it had pushed further in that direction, if it had played more with the characters' morality and with the question of what happens when someone who lives by manufacturing lies discovers that perhaps something exists which cannot be controlled.
The ending, without going into details, seems more routine than powerful to me. The film becomes more violent and more direct, but not necessarily more unsettling. It gains blows and loses some mystery. It is as if it were in a hurry to resolve what it had previously set up with more grace. It does not ruin the film, but it confirms that its best minutes were earlier, in the ambiguity and in the promise.
In the end, it remains for me a decent, entertaining film, with a very good premise and a rather uneven result. I liked it enough not to regret watching it, but it also left me with the feeling that there was a better film hidden inside it. It works because of Florence Pugh, because of the idea of paranormal scammers and because of some moments of unease, but it falls short of being truly memorable.
The best part is in that opening, when the film presents the group, the fraudulent business and the feeling that everything can go wrong. There is something interesting in seeing how they exploit other people's pain, how they turn fear into spectacle and how the story returns that lie to them in the form of a real threat. There it had material for a much sharper horror film: a film about scammers facing the very thing they used to fake.
Florence Pugh already has presence, even in a minor film. It is not one of her great performances, nor does the film give her everything it could, but you can tell she holds the screen better than the whole around her. Her character works because she is not just an impostor: she carries a complicated relationship with the supernatural, with her mother, with guilt and with that ability to see or feel things that others reduce to a trick. She helps the film have something of an emotional center.
I also liked Celia Imrie, who brings the most disturbing and unpleasant part of the story. When she appears, the film gains unease. Her character allows the story to become a little dirtier and the house to stop being just a setting for scares and become a place with memory, cruelty and secrets. It is a shame the film does not make better use of that line, because that is where its murkiest material was.
The problem is that the film loses strength. It begins with a clear idea and a certain hook, but then becomes a much more conventional haunted-house story. There are dark rooms, noises, apparitions, secrets from the past and moments designed to scare, but they do not always have the necessary intensity. It is not a disaster, but you can feel that it could have been much scarier.
The tone never quite finds a strong personality either. It never becomes a truly unsettling psychological horror film, or a memorable ghost story, or a cruel thriller about deceivers receiving their punishment. It remains a decent mixture, with some effective moments, but also with many predictable stretches. You can see where it is going, and it rarely manages to truly surprise you.
Even so, I do not think it is a film to despise. It has a contained running time, it is easy to watch, the premise catches your attention and there are a couple of scenes with enough nastiness to keep the interest alive. It is not one of those Netflix horror films that seem made only to fill the catalogue with no idea behind them. Here there is an idea, even if the development is not up to what it promised.
I was more interested in the fake-medium side than in the ghosts themselves. That dimension of fraud, guilt and taking advantage of other people's suffering seems much more suggestive to me than the scares. The film would have been better if it had pushed further in that direction, if it had played more with the characters' morality and with the question of what happens when someone who lives by manufacturing lies discovers that perhaps something exists which cannot be controlled.
The ending, without going into details, seems more routine than powerful to me. The film becomes more violent and more direct, but not necessarily more unsettling. It gains blows and loses some mystery. It is as if it were in a hurry to resolve what it had previously set up with more grace. It does not ruin the film, but it confirms that its best minutes were earlier, in the ambiguity and in the promise.
In the end, it remains for me a decent, entertaining film, with a very good premise and a rather uneven result. I liked it enough not to regret watching it, but it also left me with the feeling that there was a better film hidden inside it. It works because of Florence Pugh, because of the idea of paranormal scammers and because of some moments of unease, but it falls short of being truly memorable.
Mini Review: I found it entertaining, especially because of its starting idea. I like that angle of people going around deceiving those who believe in presences, ghosts and poltergeists, staging paranormal little shows to get money, until they run into something that may not be so fake. It is a simple premise, but effective, because it plays with an attractive contradiction: the supposed ghost hunters do not believe in anything, or believe just enough to...