Where's Rose (2021) User Reviews

Mediocre

[WolfGoddess77 · 5/10 · 3 November 2022]

I thought the bother and sister dynamic would be different. I can understand why he would be apathetic and cold towards her after his real sister goes missing, but it's like he doesn't care about her before that, either. When his mother wakes him up to tell him that Rose is missing, instead of getting worried and helping to look for her, he just turns over and goes back to sleep. When they 'find' her in a field and put her in an ambulance, he just sits there in the car. I really don't understand why the real Rose is so attached to him. He clearly couldn't give a crap about her.

Also, what was with the father announcing to the party guests that he intended to bang his wife into next Sunday right in front of a small child? Seriously, WHAT was that about?

The fial act saves this very mediocre film

[manuelasaez · 6/10 · 14 September 2022]

First of all, the acting is fine. I don't understand why IMDB reviewers love to jump on bandwagons and parrot each other like birds in a forest, but the acting is FINE. Some of the actors were obviously more talented and experienced than others (the mother was a clear standout), but everyone did their best and were believable, for the most part. The only really rotten apple was the titular child, Rose. She is not very talented, and delivered her lines with all of the aplomb of a grade school production of Hamlet. So, the reviewers criticizing the acting are either just being nasty for no reason, or just want to add another penny to the pile. Don't even bother listening to those people.

As for the movie was fine, nothing to really call home about. It wasn't scary, the special effects were a joke, and the script was as simplistic as it gets with nothing even remotely unique happening. But the final act came out of left field, tied everything together, and made a truly mediocre film watchable. Let me tell you, those last 20 minutes had me INVESTED in what the ending was going to be. For that alone I bumped my review up 2 points.

The real horror in this movie can be found in the horrible parenting on display. You raise a son to his college years, fill his head with all of these delusions of grandeur because he's good at throwing a ball, and wonder why he behaves the way he does. Bad parenting is scarier than any Hollywood monster could ever hope to be, because it CREATES those monsters. Teach people to do their damn jobs as parents and so many of societies issues would disappear overnight.

That being said, movie? Mediocre.

Ending? Worth the run time.

Scariest thing about the movie? Entitled teenagers.

Day #2, #31DaysOfHalloween2022: Where's Rose?

[Vises · 5/10 · 4 October 2022]

Day #2

So, this is a bit of a strange one. The ambition was there and Mathis does a great job overall but the treatment used to cover the overall theme may have been a misstep.

Hovering somewhere between a Lifetime Sunday Feature, Arthouse and Fantasy (think Guillermo del Toro) the movie is over before you can truly commit.

The flow and pacing were acceptable, and I credit Mathis for attacking such brave subject matter, however it never truly gels and one feels sated solely from the socially conscious message, getting nothing from the horror elements at all.

Also, the acting was very uneven, save for Ty Simpkins, Annaliese Judge and Skyler Elise Philpot.

5.5/10

#31DaysOfHalloween2022.

Doesn't make any sense

[biscuitskhan · 2/10 · 4 September 2022]

After you see the twist you'll understand that the movie makes no sense lol.

Where is Rose? Well, where ever she is let her be. I wouldn't want her to have to go through the pain I went through while watching this movie..

Ok so the brother knows that something else has taken his sisters place and you'll see why near the end of the movie..

And then you'll see how dumb the whole thing is.

It's actually a waste of time.

Like the tree thing what is that supposed to be? And it doesn't transform or shape shift it is in some kind of costume of Rose lmao..

And the tree shows the brother what he has done what is that about?

I mean he did it and the casually forgot?? 🤷‍♂️

Where is Rose? Never mind Rose what is the plot of the movie supposed to be??? Idk 🤷‍♂️

Boring nonsense

[orionhi · 1/10 · 20 August 2023]

There's no mystery, no suspense, no edge of your seat excitement. It's slow boring garbage. It's essentially the same scene over and over. The boy pulling his hair out trying to figure out what's going on but they show that same scene over and over and over again. I guarantee you if you watch this all the way through to the end you Will be disappointed you wasted an hour and a half of your life on this crap. Especially when you see the monster. This rubber suit. Looks like something straight out of power rangers. My advice, keep looking. You'll find a movie much better than this one or read a book or sort your sock drawer. Even that's more entertaining than this movie.

Get him a haircut!

[takato0524 · 1/10 · 14 January 2023]

Geeze. Watching him barely be able to see because his hair was in his eyes like a dog bothered me the entire movie.

So it's a terrible movie. Spoiled athletically gifted and of course smart hs jock has everything he wants except the girl next door. So what does he do? What any teenage guy does and forces himself on her while she's babysitting his sister. Now mind you, for a hot shot athlete, this guy is skinny af, yet is able to overpower the girl that's the same size as him and was sober and wasn't caught off guard. Little sister he supposedly adores sees the whole thing and his first thought is to get violent, then leave her for dead? Excuse me?!

The movie was a mess besides the whole plot everyone could see coming. The camera was always close up on the father's face for some reason, the mother was so overbearing it was unrealistic, the friends were 1 dimensional and terrible acting. I can't find one thing positive to say.

Slow Burn, enigmatic Supernatural Mystery/Thriller. The movie has a very effective sense of ambiguity, deliberately keeping the audience in the dark...

[lathe-of-heaven · 7/10 · 22 September 2022]

I really liked this little film. I'm quite surprised that it only has a current rating of 4.x. Yes, as others have said, the acting isn't the best, especially the mom is quite cringeworthy, as well as some of the supporting cast. But, I felt the little girl and her brother were quite good and definitely carried the movie.

What I particularly liked about it was the very engrossing sense of Mystery, where you really begin to wonder WTF is going on. Nothing seems quite right, and SOME of it is fairly clear. BUT... it is not until you get to the end that you truly understand what has been going on.

It is a nice blend of genuine Mystery, Psychological Thriller, and the Supernatural. And, I feel that the director did an excellent job at balancing everything. Again, yes, it WOULD have been nice if he could have elicited some better performances by the supporting actors, but I think overall he guided the story quite well.

Now you have to be very, VERY patient with this one, because it would be quite easy to get impatient with all the ambiguity and lack of 'Action'. If you honestly get bored really easily, then I would humbly suggest that you give this one a pass. But, to me the whole point of the story and the way it is developed, is that the audience is drawn along with a strong involving sense of 'What the hell is going to happen next?' and 'Why the hell did that happen?' And, when you do get to the end, the explanation I feel is indeed very satisfying. Because it ties together some feelings and questions that the audience may have had, but didn't quite know why (I KNOW that sounds super vague, but I don't want to give anything away : )

Anyway, IF you don't mind a really slow burn story, and you can be very patient and deal with the ambiguity of what is going on or where it is going and do not get bored easily, and if you appreciate a good Mystery with Supernatural elements, you might have a good chance of enjoying this one...

Too slow paced and uneventful...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 6 September 2022]

As I sat down to watch the 2021 thriller "Where's Rose", I did so without ever having heard about the movie. I happened to stumble upon it by random chance, and of course with it being a movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I opted to give the movie a fair chance.

Writer and director John Mathis didn't manage to deliver a movie that fell particularly in my taste. The storyline and narrative of the movie was just simply too slow paced and uneventful. I didn't really care much for the characters in the movie, and then it becomes difficult to invest oneself into the narrative.

The storyline in "Where's Rose" was pretty straight forward, and I am sure that there is an audience out there for a slow burning movie such as this turned out to be. I, however, prefer movies with a bit more pacing to it. I found the narrative way too slow and uneventful, so there was very little enjoyment to be had here for me.

The acting performances in the movie were fair, however I just didn't care much for the one-dimensional characters that the actors and actresses had to portray.

As for "Where's Rose" being a thriller or horror movie, well... Let's just say you're not in for anything particularly thrilling or scary.

My rating of "Where's Rose" lands on a three out of ten stars.

Decent twist

[Farfallina78 · 7/10 · 3 September 2022]

Not sure why the good reviews are getting bot down votes. The movie is low budget, but decent! I wavered in my thinking who the real monster was, and in the end, my gut was right.

Only by then I assumed the movie had gone in a very different direction. It might seem like the same old "Changeling" type of movie, but if you stick with it til the end you'll likely be surprised.

The acting is fine, nothing that stands out as either fantastic or awful.

I don't want to spoil the plot so I'll end here, hopefully within the new required character minimum needed for reviewing. There's not much else to say, aside from the fact there are no real jump scares nor stomach turning effects.

A less than zero

[wdjsmvjws · 1/10 · 24 February 2023]

If you have to Google what the hell was this movie about after your finished watching it ...in my book that's a fail! What a Chaotic mess! I spent most of my time trying to figure out what was going on & hoping the ending helped wrap it up... but oh no ... just more confusion. Acting was mediocre. The tree with the nasty long nails ruined this movies whole vibe. I almost turned it off at this part of the movie. I was expecting something ... but this wasn't it. Most of all I wasted and hour & twenty three minutes of my time. If I could give this movie a zero I would! Save yourself some time & change the channel.

low budget, bad acting, good movie

[lachcatoknca · 8/10 · 2 August 2022]

This is a low budget movie with bad acting.

Filmed in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

A cohesive plot.

The young actress who plays Rose does a good job.

And I thoroughly enjoyed it.

If slowburn indie horror is your thing, this is for you.

[psychofox-88511 · 7/10 · 4 October 2022]

Took me a while to get round to this purely because some of the reviews were very negative.

When I did eventually watch it, I was so glad I did.

It's a great little mystery horror. Despite a low budget, the cinematography is great, the acting is on-point (with a few forgivable exceptions) and the script is clever. Theres' a twist that is sign-posted throughout but never obviously enough that it ruins the ending. I had suspicions of what was going to happen but still found the final reveal rewarding.

There are several negative reviews on IMDB but, for the most part, these seem to miss the point. In particilar, a review titled "Doesn't make any sense" misses the point entirely. There's more than one way to interpret this film and there is a lot of scope to unpick the symbolism; that reviewer clearly just took the whole thing literally.

As I said in the title, if slowburn horror appeals to you, and you don't mind lower-budgey (but still very well made!) indie films, you could do a lot worse than this!

Very poor. Terrible acting

[victorfernandes-58951 · 3/10 · 1 September 2022]

What a huge waste of time. I couldn't last longer than 20 minutes. Some of the worst acting I've ever seen. And nothing has happened yet.

This could have been shot on a phone.

It looks cheap, it feels cheap in every way.

Acting is so bad it looks like comedy sometimes. Especially the boy. Terminator has more emotions than him.

These reviews with 9s and 10s obviously are fake. One just has to watch 5 minutes to know this is not a 10 movie. If anyone thinks this is as good as the godfather then they aren't very intelligent.

I don't understand why real reviewers don't bother reviewing to help other people.

WORST ACTING EVER , VERY LOW BUGET , NO STORY

[didoman-24340 · 1/10 · 13 September 2022]

The movie is awful, I am a horror movie fan but this movie doesn't even get close to being one.

The characters are acting awful except for the young girl. I came across the movie and saw its rating thought it would be a good movie but it is not.. Just a waste of time.

The story is very weak. There is no building up for the events. The director assumes that the viewer has the background story for the characters but didn't even mention anything about them.

The movie looks cheap and it is cheap in every mean and every moment you feel there is something wrong like you are waiting 82 mins for the movie to start. It can be an intro but not a whole movie.

Never thought i would sign up to give a review for a movie but yea it is worth to let people know how bad is that movie.

I don't recommend it to anyone.

If only they had a more experienced ensemble!

[SoumikBanerjee1996 · 5/10 · 6 November 2022]

The people who know me personally or my taste & preferences in films are pretty much familiar with the fact that I often like to take my chances with low-budget independent works.

Why do I do that? Well, being an avid cinephile, I am always in search of deserving, underrated titles. At times, I do happen to stumble upon some worthy features, however, in most cases, I return empty-handed.

"Where's Rose", Unfortunately enlists itself to my latter list of disappointments.

Whilst I appreciate the story for at least trying to be innovative and bring something new (kinda) to the table; the execution, however, leaves a lot to be desired. The direction here is inefficient, the editing should have been more sharper, more articulative! The performances aren't exactly horrible, although I do feel, with a more experienced cast things could have panned out in a much better fashion.

A decent attempt nonetheless.

Monumentally Stupid Movie

[carlaweems72 · 1/10 · 3 February 2023]

Please don't waste your time watching this film there is pretending to be a movie. It is just stupid. It doesn't explain things, the storyline is completely idiotic. I don't even know what the hell this garbage is. It has no ending. The characters are not explained. Key events that happen in this pile of garbage are not explained. I've seen some pretty bad movies, but this doesn't even hint at what the movie is. I don't understand why Amazon prime has this in their selection of movies. It's ridiculous. It is a waste of time, it doesn't even allow the viewer to mentally come up with a conclusion for the movie. It is just garbage. Pure garbage.

Fun Movie With an Odd but Enjoyable Story Which Could Have Been Darker

[mrnefarious-46616 · 7/10 · 12 February 2024]

Where's Rose would make a great film to show the whole family at Thanksgiving! Skyler Elyse Philpot was phenomenal playing her parts! Forgive my sick and twisted mind but this movie could have been darker. I guess they didn't want to fight the ratings board. I found some character's actions or inactions felt out of place or out of context. It had a good ending and a decent middle. It's like slow burn light The final act was interesting. Youj are left with some unanswered questions. I don't know if they are planning another chapter in the movie. I'd watch it for sure. Especially if Skyler is reprising her character.

Strange movie with weak acting

[mraymos · 4/10 · 16 April 2023]

Thought I would give this a shot after seeing a trailer on Netflix. Super slow movie and as others have noted #1 the acting was fairly weak. I'm not sure how people didn't see the big twist coming after the 1st 30 min. I finished the film just to be sure but it was as I suspected.

Definitely a very low budget film that had promise but it's just too slow and uneventful to take serious.

The parents are horrible and probably the weakest actors in the film. The special effects are very subpar even for a low budget film.

I like indie films and respect filmmakers that have a vision and don't have big Hollywood money. However, in this case I wish I had passed on this one.

I don't think I do not understand what did not just happen

[laflammemark · 5/10 · 1 March 2024]

My main question after finishing this one was: What?

Seriously, I have no idea what this movie was about or how it wrapped up. It began with a simple enough plot: A little girl goes missing and when she's found, her overachieving older brother feels there's something different about the lass.

And thus ends the only part of the movie I understood. Maybe there's a lot of symbolism flying over my head here, but to my eye, they just mangled this story to a bloody, unrecognizable pulp and put haunting music over it to fool you into thinking it was a horror movie.

I'd be worried about spoiling the ending for new viewers, but truthfully, bros. I don't think I could if I tried. I honestly don't know if this was a story of madness, a creature feature, or a tender Lifetime film about the importance of family, or perhaps a cautionary tale about the trouble with killing siblings.

I thought the little girl was a fine actress. She was downright spooky at times. So there. I said something about the movie, can you just leave me alone now?

Well Done - A Fresh Take on an Old Story

[rclabaugh-1 · 8/10 · 22 August 2022]

A well made indie with a fresh twist on the familiar "Changeling" folklore of a child who disappears and returns "changed." It's clearly not her and her brother knows it. We've see that before, but solving the mystery of what happened to the real Rose,and who's the real monster here, is the fresh core of the story. Ty gives a compelling performance as the troubled brother who knows something is not right with his sister. Well shot by DP Eric Gesualdo and well written and directed by newcomer John Mathis. Worth a look.

What a flop

[horrorfaninusa · 3/10 · 22 September 2023]

If this is your first movie, just don't try to be smart and just do something fun. Most no budget indie movies fall flat because the directors are inexperienced and they try to bite more than they can chew. This is exactly what happens in this movie, a convoluted mess.

So, the main cringy dude has suspicions that his little sister who got lost in the forest then found, isn't really his real sister. Now, this is a good idea and it could've been very scary. But no, that would be too easy.

Our genius director wanted to "give a message" and make it confusing so that the ending twist could have a punch. But it failed big time because the end twist makes absolutely no sense.

Also, the tree dude or whatever was laughable and it totally destroyed the movie for me and many other people in the comments section.

Overall, with it's bad acting and meaningless plot it wouldn't be a wise idea to spend hour thirty minutes of your life wasting on this movie unless, you really like cheap indie movies with plots that makes no sense whatsoever.

3/10 for the effort and I think I'm being extremely generous here.

When you need to watch a good movie..

[Itsmejoo · 10/10 · 1 September 2022]

You'll be glad you watched it, it's def not a life time movie. I think if the movie jacket portrayed more of the supernatural aspect of the movie, it would get more viewers. Believe it or not, on the YouTube channel It's a Surreal World, and slapped ham, the same creatures are being seen by more and more people now, of you haven't already noticed, more and more movies are showing invisible creatures, aliens, and fallen angels, there's a reason for this, and it's not to give your a heads up but to deter you from believing those who try and share the truth. Waiting for the movies about the thinking veil next!

Not what you think

[jordonalexander · 10/10 · 13 August 2022]

There's a lot to thematically unpack in this low budget horror/thriller, that is very well crafted by writer/director John Mathis. Hard to discuss without giving much away, but it's something that you have to experience yourself.

Good story, kept me intrigued.

[variesale · 9/10 · 6 November 2022]

I'm not reviewing this film based on acting or production because it's not a big name film or one with a large budget. I'm instead going to rate it based on the story. The story was well written and kept me intrigued the whole time. I waited almost a year for this to stream in USA and honestly only watched this movie because Ty Simpkins is in it. While it was a good story, I can't relate Ty to his character. Ty grew up playing a sweet, borderline autistic child in almost every movie so it is hard to see him as a rapist and even accidental murderer. While I can't relate him to the character, he did a great job playing the part. I like that the story kept me guessing and I never knew exactly where it was going until it got there.

Classy indie horror film

[jollyjumpup · 9/10 · 14 July 2023]

As a lifelong horror fan who appreciates the full spectrum of the genre, I was happy to stumble onto Where's Rose, a classy indie offering that should appeal to fans of folk horror, supernatural mysteries and psychological thrillers. That is, all but ravenous gore fans.

Writer-director John Mathis crafted a smart intriguing screenplay and executed it beautifully. Although it's a low budget one-main-location film, it looks rich and the special efx are worthy of a studio production. The story moves at a satisfying pace, keeping you hooked to the end.

The casting is convincing and the acting generally excellent. Ty Simpkins is the biggest star in the film but Skyler Philpot steals the show, alternately charming and chilling. Anneliese Judge displays a simmering vulnerability that's magnetic. Kathy Searle deserves mention in a meaty supporting role that she makes the most of. But the entire cast delivers the goods.