Ayla (2017) User Reviews

Confused and confusing

[soraprint · 3/10 · 29 May 2018]

The film should be commended for an interesting premise, and some good filming on a low budget. However, there are many negatives to this movie, which when added up lead to an unenjoyable film.

Firstly, the gratuitous sex scenes are both unnecessary for the plot and character development, and feel like a slightly perverted indulgence on the filmmakers behalf.

Secondly, the sound. I was so disappointed that the sound recordings in many scenes and shots were below par. Bad sound can take you out of the moment, and remind you this is a low budget Kickstarter movie.

The plot builds acceptably, but loses coherence in the 3rd act and ends without any conclusion that would be satisfying. Sometimes an "open to interpretation" ending is brilliant... sometimes it is a poor attempt to hide a mess of a conclusion; the equivalent of "and then I woke up". Ayla falls into the latter category.

This could have been a much better film if the horror/supernatural element built to something that actually induced terror. It doesn't, so it isn't.

I don't know what I saw.

[yahyanaveed · 3/10 · 6 April 2018]

Dead sister returning as larva sort of psycho human and having sexual relations with him till he destroys himself and she go back, bit too much for me to process.

4/10

[adamfeder-39184 · 4/10 · 7 April 2018]

It was okay but I wouldn't consider this a horror movie, really. I found myself fast forwarding quite a bit. Basically a guy is in so much grief over the death of his sister that she comes back to life in a very odd way and they end up having quite the relationship and she never talks. And this guy's has issues that cause him to have a distant relationship with his Brother and Mom.

Dull and uninspiring

[theloststudio · 1/10 · 5 April 2018]

I watch an hour of this film which I will never get back. The cover makes it look like an Insidious type title. I expected some horror but it was dull and uninspiring. In the hour I watched next to nothing happened except some weird sex scene. I wanted so much more but it didn't deliver.

Huh?

[chicagoslim · 1/10 · 22 April 2018]

Brother and dead sister sexual tension with a "wait, was that the ending?"

Confusing

[mdrafa112 · 3/10 · 13 May 2019]

The whole movie is very confusing. You may expect that you may understand the story later, but you won't. This is the spoiler!

Interesting premise but ultimately confusing and dull

[Floated2 · 2/10 · 9 October 2022]

The premise seemed to grab the attention of many. While knowing it was a lower budget film but thinking it could be decent given the premise and concept, in the end "Ayla" doesn't offer much and is disappointing.

The film sounded relatively different but what we watched was a slow paced, confusing, and quite dull drama. Labeled as a horror thriller, there aren't any thrills or real scares. The horror aspect is from the "bringing back from the dead" and supernatural type elements.

The lead actor wasn't very convincing. Tristan Risk as Ayla was the standout yet she wasn't given much to do. The mother was quite annoying.

As an independent film, the writer/director could have went far more over the top and all out crazy. It was relatively tame. Expected more crazy, more bizarre and more off the wall.

Also the ending was not clear and was severely underdeveloped and disappointing.

strange

[jacobwadsworth · 1/10 · 12 April 2018]

It's not scary, not well acted, and it's very, very boring! Please don't waste time watching this!

Have problems sleeping? Well, put this on...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 13 April 2021]

Right, well needless to say that I was lured in to watching the 2017 movie "Ayla" given the movie's cover, its synopsis and the fact that Dee Wallace was in the movie. Granted, I hadn't even heard about it, as I sat down in 2021 to watch it.

And let me just say that if you stumble upon this movie, leave it be and move along to something else. Because "Ayla" was such a swing and a miss from writer and director Elias.

The storyline told in "Ayla" was unfathomably boring and slow paced, despite of the synopsis selling the movie's story pretty well. But believe you me, this movie was a mundane heap of nothing happening. It is monotonous in its pacing, which made it feel like the actual movie was twice as long.

It should be said, though, that the acting performances in "Ayla" were actually not bad. But the actors and actresses literally had nothing to work with in terms of a proper script, an interesting storyline or overly well fleshed out characters.

I was expecting this movie to be a horror movie, but unless you consider slow pacing and a storyline of nothing interesting as being horror, well...

"Ayla" is not a movie that I would recommend you waste your time, money or effort on. It simply isn't worth it. My rating of this 2017 movie lands on a generous three out of ten stars, based mostly on the production value of the movie.

yawn

[weezie-55901 · 1/10 · 6 April 2018]

Don't bother... just a whole waste of time if you actually wanted something interesting and scary... this fails on every aspect of a decent film. Poor characters, bad acting, and worse story...left wondering 'what the heck!?'... why did I bother... turned off half way through.

A wonderfully acted, deeply melancholic "what if?"

[deathbyradiatin · 8/10 · 1 October 2017]

Ayla is a profound and mournful little film dwelling on loss, grief and mental illness. A man can have a supportive family, a girlfriend who loves him, and still be plagued by his own personal demons. Elton is obsessed with the life he never had with his sister who died tragically when she was four. This plays into his own mental health issues that cause him to self-harm. In a moment of bizarre fantasy he is able to will his sister into being. But how does this grown woman who has miraculously appeared in his life even know how to be his sister? Many of us think about those in our lives we miss or wish we could have known better but when death separates us, what is it that we're actually bringing back?

This is a low budget movie funded through Kickstarter so don't expect grandiose special effects or lavish sets and settings. Instead you get a deeply committed cast willing to do what it takes to make these feel like real, sympathetic characters that you can relate to. Ayla is a film that is as much a family drama and a meditation on grief as much as it is a horror film. Much is left to the audience to interpret and figure out how they feel about what happens, it's taken me most of a week to be able to really process what the film is about in my own head. If you get a chance to see this on the festival circuit please do, you're not going to find much else at there quite like Ayla.

Ouch! It's worth a much higher rating.

[mjsreg · 6/10 · 11 August 2018]

OK - so this film isn't going to appeal to the gore fans, but it is a decent film to watch.

It is very well acted, the technical aspects are spot-in, and the story - well - it's almost there but not quite.

This film moves along at a leisurely pace, so if you have the attention span of a goldfish it won't appeal to you, and probably won't if you are looking for light entertainment.

This film will appeal to you if you like a story where you can get to know/understand more of the characters than just the superficial scream-fest characters we see in so many other films.

One thing does let this film down very badly, and that it the ending. I just don't know what they were thinking ending a film like this.

Confused

[allenmoeva · 4/10 · 17 January 2021]

I was following the movie, was interesting at first, then I was left trying to figure out whether this woman was a figment of his imagination. The ending was disappointing.

If you wish hard enough........

[okpilak · 2/10 · 15 August 2023]

If the absolutely grating music doesn't turn one off, there are plenty of other reasons to dislike this film. The characters are not likeable, the acting is wooden and the story has more holes than Swiss cheese. Elton (Al) lost his sister when she was four, and he feels if he wishes hard enough she can come back. He really, really wants her back. So many things are not explained, but he is in a forest, goes to the base of a tree and digs out a cocoon, and from it emerges a grown woman, although childlike, that he is convinced is his sister. Oh, he develops strange marks on his arms. The lack of a story isn't really a problem, as most would quit caring long before.

Not your classic horror

[angelaamerson4116 · 1/10 · 10 May 2018]

Way too much gping on, but nothing entertaining. This is more a drama about a guy who needs help, but as usual he's coddled and then crap happens! Turned it off after like 15 minutes.

...and all that could have been.

[I_Ailurophile · 4/10 · 27 October 2021]

In a film that's 86 minutes long, the first quarter is sluggish exposition that's almost entirely unnecessary. By the time we're one-third in, the plot finally seems to begin, though up to that point we're also subjected to an unconvincing performance from lead Nicholas Wilder, and one or two scenes that don't actually make any sense. I love Chad Bernhard's score, lending tense, uneasy, atmosphere, and I appreciate the highly subdued tone of the film. Yet putting aside these highlights, it's not exactly a strong start.

Once the plot belatedly commences, strange occurrences gradually accumulate. And still these are interspersed with dubious scenes, and annoying dialogue and supporting characters. Maybe they're just deliberately holding their cards close to their chests, but with only a couple exceptions, the cast does not impress me. Given a small supporting part, I think Dee Wallace illustrates fantastic range and poise as Elton's (Wilder) beleaguered mother Susan. More than that - denied even a single line in the screenplay, Tristan Risk nonetheless offers up the best performance of the movie in the title role, wielding fantastic nuance and physical presence.

I like the premise; it's what drew me in. Yet 'Ayla' relies absolutely on subtlety as it weaves its tale. There's nothing wrong with that whatsoever: I've watched plenty of movies that worked with a similar underhanded tack and loved them. There's something highly rewarding about a feature filled with a superficial appearance of uneventfulness, or purposeful obfuscation, that masks hidden depths. Such an approach requires a dexterous hand to successfully pull off, however, and filmmaker Elias does not demonstrate the necessary refined touch here. That superficial appearance of uneventfulness turns out, in this instance, to simply be actual uneventfulness, and the lack of clarity in the narrative does not seem to belie the discreetly intelligent storytelling we'd wish.

I wanted to like this; I had high hopes. I think there are good ideas within. But the story takes totally too long to truly take off, and even once it does, the movie keeps us engaged mostly because we're desperately searching for something to deserve that attentiveness - and there is disappointingly little here that captures the imagination. I'd like to think other folks will get more out of 'Ayla' than I did, but I began watching with high expectations, only to see them brought frustratingly low.

Recommended for only the most patient and open-minded of viewers, but even that is debatable.

What a snore

[and-80317 · 1/10 · 19 November 2019]

Must be some kind of artsy rubbish you gotta be really far up your own bum to enjoy, 'cus I sure didn't. Really boring. Not even remotely scary so why this is a called horror I don't know.

worst movie in the world

[Harry_Cany0n · 1/10 · 26 June 2019]

I accidentally downloaded this, and got 24 minutes into it before I wanted to kill myself. Absolutely NOTHING happened. It's horrific. Don't watch t!

Whatever Makes Your Parakeet Sing. Ol' Billy Don't Mind.

[wandernn1-81-683274 · 2/10 · 8 March 2024]

Well this starts off pretty boring but at least it shows a couple t's in the sex scene which meets our requirements for putting a sex scene in a movie. +1 Star

Dude doesn't see chica's reflection in the mirror during that so that was the indication of something bizarre going on!

So then the movie goes through a period of very slow dialogue. -1 Star.

And a really long boring driving sequence. -1 Star.

And then dude gets locked in a room and screams and then somehow gets out and then goes and digs in the dirt and comes out of there with a naked girl that I guess is supposedly his sister? Very bizarre but ... -1 Star ANYWAY! More driving? Couldn't they have just put in there like '2 days later.....'

Then Old Billy runs the Sunshine Motel. We like Old Billy. This ain't Old Billy's first rodeo!

Oh and naked girl is awake now and somehow has clothing! She likes bouncing on the hotel bed.

Then more driving? You really gotta be kidding me. This certainly ain't no RAIN MAN. Boring driving! -1 Star.

Okay so then some mad hotel sex. +1 Star Brother and Sister tho?

Or am I confused?

Okay and then it's over. Amazingly bad. 2/10.

Skin-tingling short film

[boonhianng · 9/10 · 21 April 2018]

First review on imdb.

Ayla is a mind-boggling show that is heavily dependent on the actors' expressions. It would seem insane that a man is haunted by the death of a lost sister but it could happen. Even though the mother has been over the grief of the loss, his son does not seem to be over it and is constantly plagued by the memory, to the extent of self-mutilation.

My takeaway is that loss of a family can lead us down to extreme needs of longing. Certain people predisposed to mental illness can become so absorbed in the acute sorrow that they cannot escape. And even upon bringing the dead back, many of the people living around us would not be able to cope either. Thus, it is most important to let go. Let go of the past and know that everything has its place and is meant to be. Be kind to others and yourself. Do good with the limited time we have on earth.

The public lacks imagination

[gillaspydaniel · 7/10 · 7 March 2024]

Ayla is a solid meditation on loss, grief, desire, and consequences. It's got everything in it that you need to understand the story, if you watch.

The bookstore sections, the sex scene in the old house, the tree of life, drawings in the Mom's house, the wounds on Elton... This is a supernatural and psychological horror movie with an open ending. There's not any pedantic exposition from the writer or director.

Isn't it a pity that the majority of the movie viewing public requires that? When they don't get it, the reviews are poor and the movie is hated.

I liked this as much as Suitable Flesh. The music has a John Carpenter vibe, the acting and the cinematography are good. The story is creepy and the ending, like the movie, shows restraint. I'm glad people are still making movies that don't assume I'm stupid or that I lack imagination.