Monday 25 April 2016

Friend Request

So we went to the cinema yesterday, we being me, Amy and Tom to see a horror film called Friend Request. Tom enjoys a horror, as do I whereas Amy is quite happy to cover her eyes and ears and pretend that it isn't happening. Both approaches work pretty well. Here's a link to the IMDB page if you'd like to read up and look at the actors/actresses in the film.

I always find with horrors you get a niche pool who tend not to appear in any other genres. For example, the main character (Alycia Debnam-Carey) in this, the only other thing I recognise her from is Fear The Walking Dead - and by that I mean I watched one episode and forgot to carry on because it's awesome. Whilst I have no problem with this, it does throw me off a little bit. For example, whenever I see Patrick Wilson in a trailer now I think they're making another Insidious film, I honestly thought they were but it turned out to be the trailer for The Conjuring 2. The only other thing I know him from is Watchman but I like to think the owl get up separates him in that from confusion.

Courtesy of Wikipedia
So what did I think of Friend Request? For me, I think I'd give it a seven out of ten. Let me explain why - so naturally there may be some spoilers from here on in.



For one, I like pretty much all films I watch, I can't remember the last time I walked away from a cinema thinking I genuinely didn't enjoy that. Whilst I have walked out of films because I couldn't get into them, I think if I had sat it through, I'd have ended up on board.  This does of course skew my scoring and very likely make it impossible to be a critic. I would be the critic comments you'd see on the DVD release case because I am so kind with my words.

Whilst it ticked a lot of common ground for horrors like.. Main character is targeted by malevolent thing, people start dying, there's that one friend who is in until the end type deal.. It was done well. There was an interesting mix of supernatural deaths alongside natural human wiring to want to survive. I liked this because it played on the survival of the fittest idea, and how such horrific and stressful situations would cause someone to react. It's often quite easy I imagine for film makers to just pick an easy out with a death, especially when the supernatural is involved. That's one of the reasons I enjoyed Final Destination, each event was like an intricate Rube Goldberg machine.

Another thing I liked was the modernisation, as I am sure you can imagine, Facebook was very heavily featured in this film - which makes me wonder if they had to get rights to us Facebook? Being such a huge global platform I would assume not because free advertising.. When watching the trailer, I just assumed it was about an unhappy stalker who happened to be a devil or something. Turned out to be what I can only assume, a well researched witch film. I assume because I haven't researched any of the main plot points but if not true, convinced me otherwise. It includes topics such as black mirrors and scrying for people who already know and/or have interest in this area. I enjoyed the use of modern technology being blended with something 'old' like a witch coven. Clever stuff.

Another good point, for me, was the balance of horror content. By this I mean, you weren't just saturated with jump scares and gore. Some 'horror' films are just jump scare after jump scare which for me, doesn't really do it. Others just have really over the top amounts of gore, a lot of which is really unnecessary but they get away with it - because it makes a lot of people uncomfortable. So when they leave and people ask how was such and such a film, you'll say 'don't want it' which for a horror film is the reaction you want to hear.  I personally, very much prefer horrors that play with your mind and perception of things - anyone can chuck a creepy child into the mix and make it say something in a sinister way. This film did do that but also ironically had a psychology class as its basis.

On a side note - I always find it strange when there is a creepy child in a film. I assume they are made up and with clever lighting and effects, are made to look creepy for the films purpose.. But sometimes the child actor is credited as creepy child.. Which parents see that part advertised and think "Hey, my kid would be perfect for that part." I mean, usually they do well but it just seems strange. Especially as the child can't even go to the premier of the film because most of the time it is a 15!

On the subject of special effects, I think this is another film that the film did well with. I personally like real effects, as soon as you slap lots of CGI into a film, as good as it is, it doesn't have the same effect. People wearing make up and stuff, I feel, get a more genuine reaction out of the rest of the cast. Someone trying to react to a horrifying monster which turns out to just be a person in a green morph suit probably doesn't work as well. And likely causes laughs. Because morph suits are weird. I used to tune into the Film 4 horror season back in the day when I would sleep at three in the morning and wake up at midday, and they played all manner of horror films. I always remember enjoying the older films with real effects. Films like The Thing, who ended up burning a lot of their models for the film. Evil Dead is another great film, the modern remake of this turned into a pretty crazy gore fest in all honesty..

Courtesy of spoileralert.tv - its a web filter that blocks spoilers, pretty cool eh?

My final point is a major spoiler as it perturbs to the conclusion. Most horrors, in fact films, have a happy ending or what can be considered a good ending. I get it - especially at the end of the a horror films where the protagonist has battled and lost through lots of different things, to win. I won't say what happened exactly but I imagine if you are reading this, like me, don't really worry about spoilers too much. Well, they lose in this film. It was an interesting twist and I think that is why I enjoy it so much, because it gets to the point where you think, it's all done now and then.. Nope! Kind of like the ending of Drag Me To Hell. She thinks she is all happy and free and about to go on a trip with her other half and then finds the button again and she gets eaten up by hell. Om nom nom. The unexpected makes a much better finish I say.

So all in all, a not bad film. I recommend watching all films so you can formulate your own opinion because I am but one man. Just because a film is rated as bad by critics doesn't mean you won't enjoy it, kind of like Batman vs. Superman. I can see why people were disappointed but for what it was, it was good. Plus who doesn't like watching superheroes scrap, especially when there is a clear underdog.

And now a little bit of moaning, I half typed this on my mobile and on the Macbook. Nothing to moan about I hear you say, and I agree. I used to do this a lot and there is nothing wrong with it. It's just the reason I am doing it this way.. Is because for whatever reason they have removed the Blogger app from the app store. I am not a huge lover of the app itself as it was quite limited in terms of it's editing tools but it served it's purpose and I was going to use my train rides to and fro to write stuff up and post if finished. Now they just say, use blogger.com through Google Chrome which I tried and it is quite well optimised for mobile usage, all the tools work like adding hyperlinks and editing how they are displayed, the text format etc. but as soon as your post is too long to fit on the screen.. You can't scroll down any more. So I found myself in this situation and realised I would have to stop myself mid flow and finish it later on.. Luckily I remembered what I wanted to post anyway and it worked out fine. Just seems like a strange thing to do. Bah.

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