Shook

While the concept has been done before, there was reason to hope going into this movie. A movie that promises to stretch out the opening scene of Scream to feature length could be done well, given the right care and feeding (so to speak). After all, Ready or Not was a great movie, but at its core, it was just a new take on The Most Dangerous Game.

Alas, it was not to be.

Shook made me sad.

While there are some nice twists and turns as the plot unfolds, Shook is woefully underwritten. At no point do we feel anything resembling empathy for our main character, her friends are nothing more than by-the-numbers stereotypes, and the pacing is off. I don't know if the director was trying to do a slow burn in some scenes, but if so, she didn't execute well at all.

And to add a little insult to the viewer's injury, there are continuity issues all over the place, the most egregious happening in the opening minutes of the film.

I give it a 4/10 because there's a good movie hiding in here. As I said, there are some nice, effective twists and turns. But underdeveloped characters and bad pacing doom this one to the bargain bin, if those still exist.