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m-dagati
Reviews
The Arbors (2020)
Decent effort, but too long and muddled
First off, there's really no argument whether the monster is 'real'. It's not real. It's a representation of Ethan's inner demons. Or, at least, that's clearly what's intended.
The reason people find it confusing it that it's too long and a bit muddled. The intent seems to be subtle and understated, but it's too understated. If you're going to do this kind of twist-ending-he's-really-the-killer thing, it has to be really sharp because you're essentially writing two stories at once. You have to walk a tightrope and build scenes and characters that can have alternative interpretations. 'The sixth sense' is a good example of this. This movie doesn't do that.
Aside from this, Ethan is just not likable. You have to like, or at least sympathize with, a character if you're going to follow them through a movie for two hours. He's just weird and boring. I was expecting some kind of super traumatic experience to roll out of his closet, so at least you'd sympathize with him, but it doesn't.
There's also a number of plot holes and implausible events (aside from the scenes that have to be 'imagined'):
- you can't hide a body under the wood floor of your garage due to the smell
- there's no way the police miss a body, a hole and an accomplice within sight distance of the road where they stop a guy with a shovel and a bag of lye
- his gf from like 12 years ago appears and wants him to run away with her? Why would she? Makes no sense
- he decides not to delete the exposition vm he left on his brothers phone, but his brother never seems to listen to it. Also why do they both have 10+ year old flip phones?
Overall I enjoyed watching it, or at least half of it. After an hour it became a slog, but the premise was interesting and the technical aspects were pretty well done considering the budget.
Viking Blood (2019)
Amateurish but Watchable
Seems like a pretty amateur effort, but the actors take it seriously and I enjoyed it. Sort of a Viking era Western. Some of the other reviewers are right in that the editing is terrible. Has lots of other flaws but it has a certain charm that you only find in independent flicks.