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Reviews
Nefarious (2023)
This movie made the un-entertaining... Entertaining!
I had no idea a moral treatise on human morality as seen through the Old Testament and assorted apocryphal Judeo-Christian writings could ever be entertaining... but here we are and it was RIVETING! I confess I am often dubious of "Christian" movies because they cannot get out of their own way or help themselves from turning into a cute dad-joke sermon, but this movie was DIFFERENT! It had all the trappings of a solid Hollywood horror film, without the appeal to cliches, and all the intensity of a morality play mixed with the dialogue of a masterpiece without becoming a self-congratulatory "dialogue movie". The director kept the plot moving along at a good pace and the acting was superb! The writing was impeccable. All low-budget cinema aspires to be this good!
The Voices (2020)
Wait for it... The film is better than the trailer
The film is a lot better than the trailer. (No Spoilers)
At first, the film may seem to recycle some typical horror film tropes, and, like other films of it's genre, "get off to a slow start", but wait for it because the director Wes Alley only takes the slow-burn approach so far and right before you get bored, you are pleasantly surprised with character developments, plot twists, and scenes that leaving you questioning "what is reality?". Similar to George A. Romero's independent original "Night of the Living Dead (1968)" there are several scenes of rough lighting or editing that reveal the "independent low budget" nature of the film, but these are minimal and do not ruin the experience, in fact, the performances of the fresh-faced actors were top-notch and praiseworthy... if not better than 90% of their over-paid counterparts littering the horror genre.
I am a huge fan of plot twists and The Voices definitely delivers (no spoilers). The young Juliana Sada's performance was spectacular. I hope to see more in the future from Wes Alley and the screenwriter Bradley Fowler.