The Culling (2015) User Reviews

The movie should have been culled.

[Greenzombidog · 3/10 · 17 May 2015]

I must say I didn't like this film. Allow me to summarise the ludicrous plot for you.

Some kids find a lost girl at a roadside diner and decide to drive her home. Once there the parents of the lost child come home and invite the kids to stay. Everyone gets drunk and high. The Mom of the little girl cuts her leg with an axe then the parents of the year drive off to the hospital leaving their child in the care of a bunch of drunk young strangers. Then a load of stuff happens that is very tiresome, nonsensical and boring.

The acting is good by the two main leads it's just that the story is never really engaging. Also it's one of those movies where the plot is fairly vague with reasons for what's happening and I didn't really care enough about it afterwards to try and reason anything out. There was a pretty weak twist in the end that added nothing to the enjoyment factor. The effects aren't great either a bit of blood some poor CG overall a bit lazy.

Certainly not one I'd recommend.

I love Jeremy Sumpter but this was garbage!

[LinaInverse23 · 2/10 · 16 March 2015]

I watched this solely because of Sumpter as I want to see him in more roles as I feel his only memorable one is still Peter Pan. I feel that him and Elizabeth were the only decent actors but the movie falls flat. The story was cliché and not engaging. There were virtually no scary parts at all and the gore was minimal. I was hoping for some good creepy atmosphere or if that was absent, at least some excessive gore but sadly the movie lacked both those elements. There was no character development and the writers clearly hated all their characters. I also do not mind when the story is not explained fully such as Night of the Living Dead; it leaves a certain amount of mystery to the movie. This movie, although it did not explain everything, was completely uninteresting to the point that I did not want to know and not knowing made the film even worse. Stay away.

Bad, But Oddly Bad

[nospam-25-374977 · 2/10 · 19 April 2015]

I'm going to try and avoid repeating what most other reviewers have said since I agree with the majority of the negative comments. That being said, this movie should NOT have sucked as badly as it did. The production values were decent. The cinematography was decent. The general dialog between the five main characters was reasonable and believable. The actresses were attractive, well-spoken and not terrible actors. The male actors were mostly not terrible.

So why did this thing suck so badly? The editing was problematic as was obvious by the shortened film length. I suspect a fair amount was cut as what did appear was choppy and not very cohesive. However, while I think the directing was weak the worst thing about the movie was the script. It's unusual to find even a bad B-movie with as unbelievable and contrived story line as what ran through this dog. Even stoned/intoxicated people don't do as many stupid things as these nitwits did.

In fact, I have to admit to being rather shocked that within the first 10 minutes or so the main actors were doing things that a 10 year old wouldn't do in the same circumstances. Despite being grossly disappointed I soldiered on hoping that each unbelievable screw-up would be the last. Now I'm embarrassed to admit that I finished it.

Nonetheless, this could have been a decent, scary flick if it even had the slightest lick of a story. But it didn't. There is no story here and nothing to see except a couple of pretty young actresses scarring their film resume by having their name on this garbage. Don't waste your time folks. You will be left feeling like an idiot because you watched the entire thing. This dog won't hunt...EVER!

UPDATE: 14/02/17 Update: I HATE SHILLS!!! Since I wrote this review several more, ahem, "Sparkling" reviews have appeared. This film is still VERY BAD!!! Please don't say no one warned you!!! Good Luck!

Epic waste of time

[YT_RealJoshTv · 3/10 · 26 March 2015]

I know the whole process of making a movie isn't the easiest task in the world, but this movie fails so horribly you are angry that your time is gone. My wife and I had to watch another movie after this to get the bad taste out of our mouth and it still didn't help much. The acting was horrible, i was constantly taken out of the situation by all actors, I'm no Oscar winning actor but I'm POSITIVE i could have sold what was happening better than this group. The story didn't make sense, constantly beating around the bush and never goes anywhere. It feels like they are buying time the whole movie and constantly shooting at weird angles so you don't notice that they are shooting all in the same area. The entity was vague, not sure how the girl ties into anything and they acted like she was one of the main parts of the entity and the special effects were horrendous and not making sense. Avoid this movie like the plague

The most generic movie I have ever seen

[rprince-832-6294 · 5/10 · 18 March 2015]

-The Culling (2015) movie review -The Culling is yet another indie-horror flick that follows a group of students who get trapped at a creepy house and creepy stuff happens. As usual.

-In a word? Generic.

-The story is generic, cliché, and nothing was new or even presented in an original fashion.

-The film took forever to take off and never got that good.

-The acting is nothing special.

-The characters literally are just the horror clichés minus a black guy who dies first.

-The music was generic creepy music.

-The effects were B-grade effects and there was nothing in the effects, film quality, or anything else what was impressive. The Culling is a generic movie with a generic plot, generic characters, and generic genericness. It offers nothing new to the genera in any way, and nothing works because of it. The Culling is not worth seeing. ever.

-Easiest review ever.

The trailer made it look much better than it was

[chrismackey1972 · 4/10 · 10 April 2015]

Yawn. There was nothing new, and I wasn't drawn in by the characters or the storyline.

I know some have criticized the acting, but I didn't see anything wrong with it. I've seen better, but I've also seen far worse acting in horror movies.

The storyline wasn't original. It doesn't necessarily have to be. I've seen plenty of recycled story lines, but the execution of this was just...yawn. The kids should've thought something was amiss when the parents run to the doctor and leave their little girl in the care of people THEY DON'T KNOW! Even stranger, the stupid kids accept that responsibility. The story wasn't awful, just boring. I know some can look at those as being one in the same.

I will say Elizabeth Di Prinzio and Chris Coy did good acting in their roles. Di Prinzio was the lead, so you have to hope she can act at least a little. She brought the right amount of emotion to her scenes. Coy was good in his role. This was, however, a step down from his role of Martin in The Walking Dead.

The CGI monster at the end was silly. He was only there for about two seconds. It's just as well it was for such a short time. It was poorly done.

I don't recommend, unless you have the need to see every horror movie out there. When voting commences on this, I'll give it a 4-star rating.

Do not Waste Your Time

[claudio_carvalho · 2/10 · 2 October 2015]

The friends Tyler (Jeremy Sumpter), Emily (Elizabeth Di Prinzio), Sean (Brett Davern), Hank (Chris Coy) and Amanda (Linsey Godfrey) are traveling to a music festival. They arrive late at a dinner that is closed and find the girl Lucy (Harley Graham) in the parking area. Lucy claims that she is lost and the group decides to driver her farmhouse. They meet her parents Val (Virginia Williams) and Wayne (Johnathon Schaech) that invite the group to have dinner with them. Val cuts her leg with an ax and Wayne takes her to the hospital while the group of friends stay in the house taking care of Lucy. Soon they discover that the place is evil and try to flee. Will they succeed?

"The Culling" is a terrible horror movie full of clichés and senseless situations. Amanda is sensitive and feels evil in the house but stay there, even when the table moves by itself. Emily's attention to Lucy is unbelievable considering that she is traveling with friends and behind their schedule. The conclusion is a total mess. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "A Casa Maligna" ("The Evil House")

Utter Garbage! Avoid at all costs!

[rajivness · 1/10 · 15 March 2015]

This is a godawwful attempt of a horror movie.

A group of friends on their way to SXSW Festival veer off their path coz one of the stereotypical annoying blonde girl has the munchies. The diner is closed and they run into a creepy girl in the diner parking lot.

Common sense dictates that you call 911 and let the Police handle it. These imbeciles take it upon themselves to return the girl back home - which of course is in the middle of nowhere.

The creepy house has monster sounds coming from all over the place and yes - is haunted. Despite the obvious these airheads stick around and get knocked off one by one. Yes, the little girl is demon possessed and likes to kill (no surprise there).

The movie has a satisfying ending as we see the little girl in the back of the truck the surviving girl is driving - as she drives away. A fitting end since it was her idea originally to pick the lil runt up originally.

Moral of the story: stick to the plan and don't try and be a Hero for any no good reason. Pay attention to clues - including the obvious (in your face) ones.

Not even worth a view!!! :-( may contain spoilers but mostly opinions!

[Tru-Review · 1/10 · 24 July 2015]

I have actually sadly seen worse than this but it greatly tops the charts in a bad one! I found it too incredibly predictable and the lighting where there was much of any at all through the entire movie was far too dim to see much of anything! For the most part it was too dark to identify anything really going on which dropped any interest I may have had right from the start! There were no characters you could relate to or care enough about whether or not they survived which any good or decent movie has! This cast was whiny and not very likable so I honestly didn't care what happened to any of them! I can't believe I made it through the whole thing considering how bad it was but I kept hoping it might actually get any at all better than it actually was! That never happened and all this did is to leave the viewer with questions never answered during the movie! I previously enjoyed things with several of the cast members so I tried to give this a fair chance but it was so unbelievably bad I can't see myself making that mistake again any time soon! I have always tried to be fair about movies and TV shows reserving my thoughts and opinions until I see the things in their entirety and to form my own unbiased opinion however in the case of this story I honestly wish I had read the reviews and opinions of people who had previously seen it because it would have spared me a bad movie viewing and the time spent struggling to watch it all the way through to the very end for what seems like nothing but a horrendous movie experience I can't undo! I think from now on I am going to attempt to read some of what people have to say about something before I spend time viewing it to spare myself this! Future viewers beware!

The Culling AWFUL 100% SUCKS

[eddieew · 1/10 · 1 April 2015]

This movie is a waste of time and money its not even worth the disc its on ,My little kids could have made a better movie than this one for real .....It made no sense at all and I Hope these actors don't make a career of acting cause there worse than milli-vanili......I highly recommend not wasting your time with this movie and hopefully you read this way before you purchase it unlike I did lol ,,,,I am upset that I could have used the last couple hours playing a boring game of checkers or marbles or anything else other than watching this horribly wrote and acted movie ........this movie is nothing more than a paper weight and is a $15.00 one at that ................Watch (NO GOOD DEED) that movie is good or JOE with Nicholas cage not this my wife pointed something out about this movie if you purchased this movie look at the back you will see this pretty brown headed girl with a pink bra on with one of the actors in it right next to her ,,,,this part never even happened ...its very generic ......

Amateur stuff!

[First_Name_Last_Name · 15 March 2015]

I am sad to have to advise my fellow horror nerds to stay clear of The Culling. This is another horrid low-budget attempt at making a generic horror film of very poor quality on many levels. It is actually quite cringe-worthy. The Culling primarily looks remarkably cheap and suffers from amateur cinematography at its worst; it really does look like a High School project due for a C-, and this is if the teacher was very, very kind. The acting and the behaviour of the characters reveal the awful writing and the cheesy/terrible directing from Rustam Branaman. The plot-setup isn't worth much either; it has been seen countless times: a group of friends go for a drive, then they have to stop at a remote location, etc. The plot is just taken from other horror movies and is completely uninspired and bland. And the execution actually tested my patience. The Culling drives each and every stereotypical character home like it was created to fit the generic pattern from the 70's: the Christian, non-alcoholic virgin is the good one, the marijuana smoker is somehow violent and obnoxious, the pushy drinker-boyfriend tries to pressure the good virgin to stray from her obvious Christian path, and her unchaste friend is just messed up. The whole problem with this particular generic type of friend-group isn't the fact that it is too basic, but that it hasn't got the actors who can act the parts in a convincing manner. Stay clear!

A little flawed but enjoyable briefer affair

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 8/10 · 16 March 2016]

Traveling to a music festival, a group of friends returning a young girl home to her parents' house brings them into contact with a ravenous supernatural entity and must find their connection to the family in order to get away alive.

This one wasn't all that bad and did have some enjoyable parts to it. One of the best parts here is the fact that there's a rather creepy air to it that does make things far more chilling than expected. Though it takes awhile, the scenes of the group walking through the house in the darkened hallways and hearing the strange noises throughout here before the eventual meeting with the parents that begins all sorts of fun in here. Hearing the voices over the baby monitor and the phantom accident makes for a stellar introduction to the fun here where it leaves them isolated in the house. These here become much more fun as the rattling furniture and unseen possession upstairs kicks this nicely along while providing some rather enjoyable set-ups with the growing realization of what's happening as they begin being assaulted by all sorts of paranormal actions which includes the fun of the car crash out in the city streets, the basement pit full of burnt dolls and the various supernatural entities found within the house that it makes for a great sense of atmosphere here. Even with this kind of cliché action leading through the finale where they begin chasing each other throughout the area, there's some frenetic action on display with the way the escape attempts are laid out which gives this a somewhat fun and enjoyable finish here. These here all manage to make this one enjoyable enough over it's few minor flaws. Among the main things with this one is the fact that there's just so little time here with this one that it really manages to come off as too rushed and hurried at times. The opening meeting with the girl and getting to her house is way too quick and done with rather quickly, then it stretches out them hanging around before the accident and kinds of stuff starts in from there which leads to a rather disjointed and rather messily-plotted with the rather start/stop nature of the pace. There's also the other problem here of managing to go for the rather traditional and cliché manner of the finale here which is pretty predictable and not all that surprising which gives this one quite a familiar ring to it at times whether it's really intentional or not. It does take a lot of the tension out of the potential tension out of the finish here going for this rather simplistic and giveaway route, and all told these here do manage to hold this one down.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language, children-in-jeopardy and some drug use.

The Culling

[a_baron · 6/10 · 30 June 2015]

If you haven't seen precisely this film before, you're surely seen the type. A group of teens/college students/young adults drive off for a weekend or an event - in this case apparently some sort of rock festival - and their journey is interrupted. Here there are two girls with an extra guy playing gooseberry - that's when he isn't playing the idiot because as you might have guessed, this group is slightly dysfunctional.

Their journey is interrupted rather unusually by a cute little blonde girl who has apparently lost or been lost by her grandfather. What can they do but take her home? When they arrive, the house is empty but her parents soon turn up, and they are invited to stay a while.

They end up staying quite a bit longer, become isolated, one of their group is killed in a freak motor accident, and there are really weird things going on, not the least being one character we are led to believe is dead coming back to life momentarily to rescue the remaining damsel with a single dreadful act.

This film has had some very bad reviews which it doesn't deserve. There are two or three genuinely scary moments due more to the suddenness of the relevant event rather than anything supernatural, but there is no proper resolution, and a film that ends with a question mark is often more annoying than enticing, as is this one.

I Want My Time Back!

[arymansapru1 · 2/10 · 15 March 2015]

This is the worst piece of garbage I have ever seen. I would rather watch a horse giving birth, nay, I would rather watch paint dry, I would rather do anything else in the world than waste my precious time on this complete and utter failure of a ' horror' movie. In fact, this movie doesn't deserve to classify as horror, I still don't understand what genre it is. It is not clearly not horror, the 'terrifying supernatural' entity is a complete joke, it is so weak, you could literally 'blow' it away( you need to see the movie to get the pun ) and it is certainly not a thriller, my six year old niece can write a better thriller than this and she can't even spell properly.

The actors are complete amateurs, they can't even convey basic human emotion, everything sounds scripted and unnatural, the setting is clichéd, farm houses are so overrated.

The tag line should have been-

'When the devil breeds...

It gives birth to this piece of s**t...

This movie with cull your time and sanity

[Jackal75 · 2/10 · 17 March 2015]

The movie portrays itself as a terrifying supernatural thriller but comes across as a B grade try hard horror movie. The basis premise of this movie is that a group of friends plan a getaway for a weekend together. On the way to their destination they find a lost girl and then proceed to take her back to her house. While at the house strange things happen. The plot definitely had potential but the script is rubbish and the acting is amateurish. There is perhaps one good jump scare in the entire movie. This movie is more laughable than scary. The ending does not even make sense. Is the girl real or not? How does killing strangers help build this army made of children? By the way the ending leaves you guessing what will happen, as if we care when the rest of the movie is a waste of time. Wait for this on free to air TV.

Jackal

dementia wont evan take away how bad this film is

[wycherleyp-960-470658 · 1/10 · 22 March 2015]

A group of friends who get stuck in a random place where weird things happen mmmmmm where have i heard of this before????? Oh yeah 90% of horror flicks. If your going to do the same old stuff at least make yours stand out and sorry but this one don't! With a cast of up and coming actors like jeremy sumpter and Elizabeth Di prinizo you would of hoped the folk behind the cameras would of made this half decent but the script writers and director must of just come out of education as this was awful. And what is it these days with horror flicks constantly using evil kids? Its been done already so move on, as you can see my review is more of a rant but thats because of how bad this film is the only saving grace is that i only lost 2 hours of my life watching this.

Writing for stupid people

[krismerrett · 1/10 · 11 July 2015]

I'm writing this as the movie is still going because I can't commit to watching this anymore.

There is so much happening in this movie. Creepy country house, weird little girl, ghost kids?? Or feral what was that about???, shadow figure, country bumpkin murderers, college road trip gone bad, murder pits.... It's a disaster because they don't bother connecting the concepts. It feels thrown together. This is what scares people? Let's us all of it.

It's writing assuming your audience is too stupid to need a plot that makes sense. It works for some horror movies, but this just wasn't scary on top of it.

The dialogue felt improvised, badly. The plot devises to separate the group to kill everyone off was terrible. There was no carry-over in motivations (Lucy was so important and then they sit on the porch and cuddle and forget about looking for her, and then later they see a shadow figure but she completely forgets about it and sits in the house crying with Lucys mom)

The whole thing devolves into nonsensical chaos (which I'm watching now) which still. Isn't. Scary.

It doesn't have to be a genius plot to be a good movie. Any kind of effort in a coherent plot, character motivation, and dialogue would be nice. This had none of that.

EDIT oh of course it was a demon children movie. Thank god it also managed to include a scene with sexual assault and a girl running half naked because that was what this movie was lacking //sarcasm

What did I just watch??

[odium43-138-258761 · 1/10 · 24 September 2015]

You know, I can forgive the sub-par acting, I can forgive cheesy spacial effects, I can forgive B-movie clichés, and I can forgive some plot holes, but I can't forgive this movie. There weren't just plot holes, the entire plot was a hole, a black hole. Nothing made sense. A group of 20 somethings find a little girl and decide to bring her back to her house, but when they get there everything goes wrong. And that's when the movie falls apart. It's like the directors wanted to make 5 different movies and just crammed them all into one. The evil little girl disappears half way through the movie and we don't see her again until the last scene, the parents seem more like serial killers, the father is raping girls and making evil demon children with them. Literally nothing in this movie is explained or makes any sense. Skip this piece of garbage and do something more productive, like watching paint dry, or giving yourself a lobotomy.

Huge waste of time

[lukedempsey-05382 · 1/10 · 5 June 2015]

Let me start by saying I understand the collaborative nature of the film-making process. When a movie is particularly well made, the accolades go mostly to the actors and directors, while the scores of set and costume designers, lighting technicians, and sound editors go largely unrecognized. When a movie is well made, fans quote it endlessly, it rakes in cash at the box office, and people remember it for years or even decades. When a movie is well made, it introduces memorable characters the audience can identify with because they see a part of their own personality being played out on the screen.

The Culling is not a well made movie.

There is nothing relatable or even recognizable as natural human behavior present in any of the characters. The acting is stiff and wooden across the board. The dialogue sounds as if it were written by a 12-year-old Juggalo. The only thing more prevalent in the script than plot holes, loose ends, and red herrings is the question mark at the end of every other sentence.

I have sat through some terrible films. I have seen Mark Wahlberg pant his confused way through "The Happening." I have seen three-foot-tall trolls fart on each other for interminable spans of time in "The Garbage Pail Kids Movie." I have seen a topless woman in a gorilla mask wordlessly rob a man at gunpoint, stealing only a horribly disfigured fetus floating in a jar in 1997's "Hideous!" The Culling is the worst movie I have ever seen. Avoid it at all costs.

Painful to watch because the characters are unlikable.

[Pink_friday11 · 1/10 · 24 October 2015]

NO SPOILERS: This movie is honestly A waste. I walked away from this movie not appreciating anything at all,

the plot was all over the place, the acting was terrible, the effects was a joke. But above ALL that, the characters are SO unlikable that it makes it painful to watch. There's better "cheesy bad" movies out there then this.

The most annoying thing though is even though I watch the whole thing I literally don't understand the plot-ending I actually had to ask for somebody to explain it to me on the message board. ( that's how I ended up on the site.)

potentially good

[MoviesReviews101 · 3/10 · 15 March 2015]

The Culling manages to look like it could have been a lot better but let's look out how things played out. We do follow the clichés there is no question about that and we do get the characters making stupid horror movie mistakes, separating and not listening to instruction. The issue I had was that the film doesn't seem to want to identify the force until it is too late which takes away the reason why the characters are running around aimlessly at times. When we do finally get the reveal it does again come off clichéd but works for what this horror is trying to achieve. You can see the low budget used on this film which doesn't help because the acting takes away from certain moments that are highlights. I think this had a lot of potential but just went in the wrong directions. (4/10)

Actor Review

Jeremy Sumpter: Tyler the ex-boyfriend of Emily but still friends with everyone, he goes on the trip hoping to win Emily back but really comes off as a big softy. Jeremy manages to make us get annoyed with his character as he clearly looks out of place in this role. (2/10)

Elizabeth Di Prinzio: Emily the head strong trainee nurse who really takes charge of the situation, she manages to stay calm while the rest overreact and tries to understand the situation. Elizabeth tires to be a good lead and shows all the character needed but really isn't strong enough for the role. (4/10)

Brett Davern: Sean the trademark asshole of the group who only ever thinks about himself, you will grow to hate this character quickly. Brett does a good job making you really hate this character. (6/10)

Chris Coy: Hank the fifth wheel of the group who panics way too much making all the wrong decisions. Chris really looks like this was mailed in. (2/10)

Linsey Godfrey: Amanda fresh out of rehab but hasn't learnt her lessons because she still wants to take drugs, she becomes an easy victim for the spirit because of her weaknesses. Linsey doesn't do anything of any quality in the role. (2/10)

Support Cast: The Culling has a supporting cast of the children and the family but never really uses them to the best of the abilities.

Director Review: Rustam Branaman – Rustam manages to take every possible cliché and turn it into a film that really isn't very character driven but does have one very good horror moment. (4/10)

Thriller: The Culling you don't seem to want to care about the characters as they just make the silly mistakes over and over again. (2/10) Settings: The Culling does create the isolation factor needed nicely. (8/10) Special Effects: The Culling has a mix of good and bad effects, but I will say it is due to low budget. (5/10) Suggestion: The Culling is one that you could watch on late night TV only I wouldn't go out of my way to see it and I wouldn't suggest anyone else too. (Late Night TV)

Best Part: When Amanda looks in the closest, good jump scare. Worst Part: Not following instructions.

Believability: No (0/10) Chances of Tears: No (0/10) Chances of Sequel: It is left open for one, but I doubt it. Post Credits Scene: No

Runtime: 1 Hour 22 Minutes Tagline: When the devil breeds...a new evil is born.

Overall: The Culling is a very clichéd horror thriller that doesn't come off as well as it could, but it really did have potential.

Great Little horror flick!

[jtungsten16 · 10/10 · 23 March 2015]

I loved this movie! This little gem came as a complete suprize, it stars Jeremy Sumpter, who I'm a huge fan of and Linsey Godfrey and Harley Graham who I know from The Bold And The Beautiful. The culling will keep you on the edge of your seat as you wonder what is it with this little girl?

I totally recommend this movie It is an easy watch as it will keep you entertained until the last frame. I am a huge fan of horror and this is a great horror film please give The Culling a watch you will be glad you did! I hope 2015 finds horror fans happy and healthy and in the store buying The Culling

Horror fast food

[gpeltz · 7/10 · 23 August 2015]

The Culling (2015) is an eminently watchable, waste of time. Spoiler Alert ahead. It was Written and Directed by Rustam Branaman, I suspect that he is the only one who can say whats going on here. On the plus side, the group seem well defined, an average and likable group. Less then two minutes in, the movie identifies itself by its particular horror movie genera. This is to be a group of collage age kids, going off in a van, into the country. Everyone knows that no good will come of it. The parts are well acted Jeremy Sumpter plays the lead Elizabeth Di Prinzio plays his girlfriend. Their four friends round out the group. Things turn sinister when they encounter a spooky little girl in the parking lot of a closing restaurant. Meet Lucy, played by Harly Graham. Things unfold in a logical order, and but for Amanda's (played by Lindsy Godfry) bad premonitions, everything seems in order.

Then the clichés start to kick in,Spooky Girl, weird noises, stalking camera-work, the whole ten yards. Particularly when the characters of Lucy's parents, Wayne and Mildred, played by Johnathon Schaech and Chelsea Bruland. start to do, "their thing"

The movie fails when it tries to explain itself. By introducing snippets of supposed clues along the way, for example, when running through the woods at night, we catch a glimpse of some ritual that seems to have nothing to do with the plot. Lots of horror movie hanky panky like this going on. "We got Shadow people, living in the basement" Ah it's satanic rites now, is it? The computer feeds back; "Too little information, it does not compute"

I do know that some of the characters were cheated out of a decent death scene. Speared by a tree branch, fer gosh sakes; He deserved better. It would be best to just let the lack of a story not get in your way of enjoying the train-wreck of the final quarter. Otherwise, Good tech stuff, lighting, sound and music all up to snuff. as it were. Seven out of Ten, "Wanted to like this one" Stars

Probably just a critter!

[racochrane · 2/10 · 1 October 2017]

I got this film from Poundland - not only that, it was 33p. That gives you a good idea of what this film is like.

I'll start with the positives - it won't take long. Though the characters followed the teen slasher prototype, one of them was actually likable!! Also the "hot" one had a more fleshed out character than usual which was nice.

Now onto the bad stuff. The rest of the characters were either actively unlikable or super uninteresting. The jock type was absolutely unbearable - overly obnoxious and soul destroying to watch. The plot was straight up weird - too many elements squashed in. (Spoilers ahead) So we have a demon child, then multiple demon children, then the parents are murderers, then there's bad cgi smoke demons, then the murder parents are possessed by smoke demons, then the murder dad has a demon child army for some unknown reason, and the little girl is a ghost or something. Like what? Who wrote this? Who looked at this script and thought it made sense? Also at the start there was like a 2 minute stretch of watching the characters IM each other? Not sure why? The special fx were terrible throughout and the music was ehh.

However I am glad I watched this because I discovered my favourite moment of Cinema. There is a golden moment when they hear loud demon noises from the barn, and murder dad explains them away by saying "probably just a critter". And everyone just accepts it!!! Magical. Comedy gold.

Antoher low budget, low brow story

[mikebrunton70 · 1/10 · 15 March 2015]

The Culling, billed as a terrifying supernatural thriller. Frankly I was bored after 30 minutes, and did see the remaining painful 1 hour. My impression was, this could have been a perfectly okay 1 hour horror story. But it's a movie right ? So the editing had to be to a normal movie length of 1 hour 30. What got me, was the usual obvious limitations of budget, so we have a tiny cast, a remote location, and terrible dialogue. We have inconsistent acting and script. One girl says the farmhouse is creepy, and then 10 minutes later changes her mind and insists the whole usual hedonistic cast stay there for dinner ! We have a lost girl, phone the police ? No !!! Take her home even though it's miles out of their route ? Yes !! Come into the house with the girl ? Check !! Change all plans and agree to stay the night in a strangers home ? Yes !! Blast a shotgun in a small room with your friend running around ? Yes !! Honestly, I used to like horror films, but the majority of movies made these days are so unoriginal and clichéd and just plain stupid that I'm going off them for life. Low budget ? Then create so damn good scripts to use ! Low budget then try something different ? How about a 15 minute pastiche of what would have happened to the cast if they hadn't been so stupid and just gone to the concert as planned ? At the end of the story - a what if story ? The usual early 20 idiots with no idea of how to act or behave, so you couldn't care less what happens when the evil eventually surfaces. Creepy young girl ? Axes slipping, strange noises, dolls !!! Dolls for god sake, they have been overdone...yes old dolls are creepy, so what ? I rate this as a must miss ! 3/10.