Flee the Light

Trying to live her life as normal, a teen living with her tormented sister tries to get to the bottom of the series of haunting incidents surrounding her sister, and when the signs lead to a coven of witches that lived in the area hundreds of years earlier must try to unravel the source of the terror.

Overall, this was a pretty solid if flawed genre effort. When this one works is due to the rather impressive setup that transpires here regarding the awakening of the supernatural powers in her and how she deals with them. The constant flashes to the two witches in the past conducted their own rite, the flashes of something supernatural following her around and deciphering the dreams to the point of finding the coven all serve this one nicely in establishing a fun setup to the realization of what's going on. Knowing the connection of the witches' use of the area in the past by seeing the different rituals in the forest or the signs that she's been right all along helps to give this a fun overall setup. However, what makes all of this that much better is the sister connection between the two that takes place here. Seeing how much they both care for each other and try to establish a means of helping each other, whether it's in dealing with the tormenting visions at the beginning or the newfound freedom from the restrained lifestyle of before once they arrive at the campsite, brings everything together full-circle. The clever switch involving who has to take care of who at those differing points in the film creates a perfect balance that furthers the bond shared even further so that the tension is quite genuine once the threat finally emerges. With some impressive make-up and gore in these scenes as well as some of the only real action in this one, this has really kicks up the energy considerably and serves this one quite well giving it a lot to really like. There are some issues to be had with this one. The main drawback here is the dragged-out first half that makes for a slightly more troubling effort than it should be considering the overall length of the film in general. With far too much time here spent on the setup to get her sister to the mystical doctor in the first place, this feels repetitive and rather overlong with how much goes on before they finally get to the campsite, this really takes a while to get going by focusing on elements that could've been shortened to get to the point faster. That would've also allowed the more traditional genre elements into the film faster with most of these factors making for a drama-like feel without much in the way of genre activity happening until quite late in the film which can make for a somewhat unappealing experience.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.

The downfall to this movie is the fact that the ending left the audience with so many questions, and hopefully in the next film, those questions are answered. The film itself has some pretty decent acting, actors, and the storyline really played out well throughout the film process. Once again, it's the ending that could've been better, but I am open to seeing if there's going to be a part two and hopefully that film Circles back and completes the ending to the first one. I mean I would definitely recommend this film to you definitely keep an open mind and when it comes to independent filmmaking, you have to keep in mind that the directors or Director has a vision and you have to try to get in their shoes to have the full understanding. Better engagement with the characters would have easily made this a better film.

The good: the title of this movie drew my attention. I had to giggle instantly when I read this "Flee the Light" title. This had GOT TO BE really bad, perhaps even laughably bad, in a cult kind of way...

The bad: but no, unfortunately this movie didnt even evoke any chuckle, besides a short chuckle about it being such an amateurish mess...

I dont often give 1 stars, but this "movie" simply is worth nothing more.

Stumbling upon the 2021 horror movie "Flee the Light" from writer Jennifer Mancini and director Alexandra Senza, of course I sat down to watch it as I hadn't already seen it. And I have to admit that the movie's cover was initially interesting enough to make me stop and take notice.

Sure, I hadn't heard about the movie prior to watching it, not a single thing. So I had no idea what I was in for here, aside from what I read in the movie's synopsis. But alas, I opted to sit down and watch "Flee the Light" regardless.

Something did flee here alright, and it was my interest in the movie. Man, talk about a movie with a total lack of interesting storyline. It was impressive that writer Jennifer Mancini could manage to churn out 81 minutes of a movie that had nothing to tell.

Needless to say that my interest in the movie was quickly vaning, as nothing of any interest was presented on the screen as the movie trotted on and on in a very monotonous pacing. Yet, I managed to endure through the ordeal.

I wasn't familiar with the cast in the movie, but they literally had nothing to work with in terms of a proper script, interesting charaters or riveting dialogue.

My rating of "Flee the Light" lands on a very generous two out of ten stars, based mostly on the production value of the movie. If you enjoy a good horror movie, believe you me, you need to find it elsewhere.

The storyline feels sketchy, bouncing from one scene to the next almost absurdly. You don't get the time to engage with either of the two leading characters on any emotional level, which left me feeling indifferent to their supposed struggles- one being seriously mentally ill and the other desperate to help. It's too rushed. The 'twist' midway through the film feels inauthentic, despite some feeble attempts to allude to it earlier on. Any true horror elements are sorely let down by crappy fx. Movies like Hereditary are proof that implied threats and a lack of yellow eyed ghouls can be profoundly scary- maybe if this film focused more on character development and actually took its time to build up suspense rather than slamming the viewer into absurdity, it may have been impactful. It's a pity, because I was interested by the final revelation. If it was a story well told, the idea could have been a franchise like Insidious.