Should you watch this at weekend movie ticket prices? No.
Should you watch this at weekday movie ticket prices? Yes.
Running time: 82 minutes (~1.25 hours)
Secret ending? No.
“Visions” is a horror movie about the haunting that a young wife experiences after she moves into a new house with her husband. It stars Isla Fisher (Eveleigh), Anson Mount (David), Said (Gillian Jacobs), Jim Parsons (Dr Mathison), and Joanna Cassidy (Helena). It is rated NC-16.
“Visions” starts out as a run-of-the-mill horror movie, with the usual unexplained occurrences and eerie incidents, and only gets into the backstory of the haunting much later in the film. What it does well is to show you the haunting through the perspective of Eveleigh, who not only has a pregnancy to deal with, but also the unfamiliarity of a new house. It’s this helplessness that makes the actual haunting itself so much worse, since you can see that Eveleigh already has a tough time handling things, and the haunting comes at a particularly bad time in her life.
Highlights
Interesting setting
Eveleigh and David are perhaps the most hipster couple to be depicted in horror films. They give up everything to live on a vineyard, and take great pains to restart production on the farm. While they may live in an isolated house which is ostensibly far from society, it’s actually a quick jaunt to the city regions for them to partake in yoga or get a quick drink at a cafe. It’s pretty much the modern ideal of life, where the supernatural is the last thing on their minds, and this is what makes the haunting so much so impactful — it’s a jarring juxtaposition against normalcy.
Good set-ups and payoffs
While the hauntings may seem like the mindless shenanigans of a ghost who doesn’t know what it wants, they actually pay off very neatly in the finale. In fact, the hauntings themselves are the very key to the resolution of the film, and how Eveleigh resolves the entire predicament that she finds herself in. It provides a strong link that ties the film together well, and gives it a strong sense of continuity.
The twist
The surprise revelation in the plot about the haunting is cleverly done and unique amongst horror films. It’s an interesting explanation of events, and is foreshadowed by several key exchanges earlier in the movie. The movie becomes more of an adventure after the twist, but the threat and horror still remains.
Letdowns
Scare techniques are one-note
Unfortunately, the scares only come in one variety — sudden shocks coupled with loud sound effects and an increase in the music’s volume. It serves its purpose in scaring the audience, but there’s no variety to the frights of the film. Different scare techniques, such as a lingering sense of fear or a moody atmosphere, would have helped up the scare levels of the movie.
Too many comedy actors
The thing about using Jim Parsons and Gillian Jacobs is that they come from popular comedies, and hence are associated with an entirely different sort of show altogether. Just having one comedy actor is enough to throw you off track and negate many of the scares, since you’re expecting some sort of joke to come forth. But two is too much, and hurts the overall mood of the show (which should be serious).
“Visions” is ultimately a decent horror film with a few missteps along the way. It’s worth watching for the twist and subsequent denouement of events, and also for the idyllic setting that the protagonists find themselves in.
“Visions” opens in cinemas 17 September, 2015 (Thursday).
This review was also published on Yahoo.
Leave a Reply