#Horror (2015)

Six preadolescent girls face a night of terror when the compulsive addiction of an online social media game turns a moment of cyber bullying into a night of insanity.

Director:

Tara Subkoff

Writer:

Tara Subkoff

Stars:

Sadie Seelert, Haley Murphy, Bridget McGarry

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Emma Adler	...	Georgie
Jessica Blank	...	Mom
Ted Christensen	...	Ted
Annabelle Dexter-Jones	...	Molly
Balthazar Getty	...	Harry Cox
Lydia Hearst	...	Lisa
Timothy Hutton	...	Dr. White
Sadie Jensen-Blank	...	Sylvia
Blue Lindeberg	...	Ava
Natasha Lyonne	...	Emma
Taryn Manning	...	Gloria
Mackenzie G. Mauro	...	Dark Figure (as Mackenzie Mauro)
Bridget McGarry	...	Sofia
Haley Murphy	...	Cat
Brenna Perez	...	Reporter

Storyline

#HORROR is a film about the lives of six young girls, Sam, Georgie, Sofia, Francesca, Cat and Eva played by our ensemble of emerging actresses. Their world is one of money, success, leisure and decadence. This is a film about the HORROR of cyberbullying. This film is an integral insight on the pressure that girls take on as they grow in a world that is increasingly dependent on the promotion and attention that social media platforms provide yet prevent bullying. as well as the roles that parents must play regarding controlling their child's use of the internet and bullying plays such a terrifying role in society. These young girls are telling this story inside a glass mansion, filled with millions of dollars of artwork, as if they were living in a contemporary art museum.

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Plot Keywords:

talking behind someone's back | girl | bullying | cyberbullying | internet | 

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Taglines:

Death is trending.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 November 2015 (USA)

Also Known As:

#Хоррор

Filming Locations:

Bedford, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lowland Pictures, AST Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color Black and White

Did You Know?

Trivia

Tara Subkoff said the full pronunciation of the film is Hashtag Horror in an interview with Elle magazine.

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Goofs

About 50 minutes into the film, the time showing on the killer's camera is 4:56 pm and the sun is seen to be shining brightly. The location of the story is near Fairfield, Connecticut, where the sun sets at 4:24 pm on December 10th (which is the date showing on the camera screen). In a later scene it is pitch dark outside when the killer's phone screen reads 5:21 pm, but even if the sun had set shortly after 4:56 pm, it would not be totally dark only 15-20 minutes later.

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Quotes

Dr. White: All you care about is yourselves, right? It's - it's easier that way, right?
[screaming into the girl's faces in anger]
Dr. White: It's fucking easier that way! Do you give a shit about anybody, do you? Do you care about anyone?
Ava: Really, swear she went home.
Dr. White: Are you an idiot? She didn't go home. I was just there. What part of that do you not understand?
[grabs Ava by her necklace]
Dr. White: You're smiling? Why are you smiling?
Ava: I'm not smiling.
Dr. White: Why are you smiling?
Ava: I'm not...
[...]

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Connections

Referenced in Sardonicast: Sardonicast #30: Climax, After Hours (2019)

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Soundtracks

Symphony NO.7 in A MAJOR, OP.92
Written by Ludwig van Beethoven

User Reviews

"#Horror" buries important messages beneath amateruish filmmaking.

Sometimes a movie comes along with the best of intentions, but its execution is simply so bad that the message gets lost. "#Horror" (R, 1:41) is one of those. The film is basically about cyberbullying, which is a serious problem in the U.S., especially among teens. According to figures from bullyingstatistics.org and Wikipedia.com, about half of all American teenagers experience cyberbullying at some point, about 1/3 per year and about 10-20 percent on a regular basis. Cyberbullying affects girls and boys roughly equally and includes all races. Many victims are more likely to have low self-esteem and consider suicide – with some having tragically completed the act. Statistics, facts and stories can bring attention to the problem, but few methods can bring it to life more effectively than a movie – IF the movie in question is effective.

As six 12-year-old girls in Connecticut gather for a sleepover, the issue of cyberbullying is introduced in a pair of parent-child conversations and becomes a factor throughout the girls' day and evening together. As Sam (Sadie Seelert) is being driven to the party by her mom (Natasha Lyonne), Sam is clearly embarrassed by her family's low socioeconomic status as compared to the girls she is about to spend time with and she is desperate to fit in. Meanwhile, Cat (Haley Murphy) is being lectured by her father, Dr. White (Timothy Hutton). Cat has been the victim of cyberbullying and (as is often the case) has also become a perpetrator. By the time Sam and Cat each arrive at the home of their host, Sophia (Bridget McGarry), three other girls, Georgie (Emma Adler), Francesca (Mina Sundwall) and Ava (Blue Lindberg) are already in Sophia's basement speaking unkindly about Cat and Sam, which Sam overhears before she enters the room… but she goes in anyway. And this is only the beginning of the girls' meanness.

No one is spared hurt feelings in this movie. The sleepover activities – playing dress-up, swimming, dancing, talking, etc. – are infused with the girls picking on each other in a way that they may think is playful, but doesn't seem to feel that way to the girl(s) on the receiving end. These tweens mercilessly tease each other about things like lacking money, being fat, enduring family embarrassment (and even trauma) and generally not fitting in. They supplement their taunts by posting pictures of each other online along with cruel hashtags. Things occasionally get very heated between some of the girls and, at one point, Sophia throws Cat out of the house. Cat leaves a very emotional voice mail for her father, who tries to call her back, fails to reach her and shows up at the house to lecture, yell at and threaten the girls. Sophia's mother (Chloë Sevigny) has left the girls alone for a while to take care of some personal business, and Sophia's father (Balthazar Getty) isn't home either, so there's no one to defend the girls from Dr. White's erratic behavior or to help him look for Cat. Things go downhill for the girls to the point that the audience gets a decent final 10 minutes, but that's the only real horror in the movie.

Filmmakers who want to make a horror movie sometimes need to be reminded that horrifying and horrible are not the same thing. These performances range from barely passable to just plain bad, in spite of the presence of an Oscar nominee (Sevigny) and an Oscar winner (Hutton) in the cast, but the actors are done no favors by a script that has them doing and saying things that often make very little sense. The words of caution and life lessons that writer-director Tara Subkoff clearly wants to convey are randomly scattered through the script as one-liners or isolated incidents that are almost completely lacking in coherence. But even with criticisms like these, you'd expect a big-screen release to at least display a certain professional technical expertise, wouldn't you? The cinematography is inconsistent in its look and many of the camera shots are of poor quality. And don't get me started on the distracting flashes of barely understandable and essentially meaningless cartoonish graphics throughout the film.

The worst thing about this movie is the important themes it tries to explore and the vital points that it wants to make are all buried beneath amateurish filmmaking. Even though this story hits many of the right notes, few people who see the movie will benefit from them. Although it doesn't have as much to say as this film is trying to, 2015's "Unfriended" is a cautionary tale of cyberbullying that is at least semi-entertaining. Still, there's a void to be filled. A topic as important as cyberbullying deserves an equally important and well-made movie. Here's hoping that we get one soon, because "#Horror" ain't it. "D"