Neon Void -NeVi

There was definitely a good idea here. The execution of that idea was shaky at best. I'm giving the film a 3/5 but that score is an average of the sum totals of all the things it does great over all the things it flopped on. What I would say it did great on was the ambiance and tone. From the start of the film the audience and tone has a feeling of dread and hopeless. It seems as though the director from the start wanted to foreshadow that sometimes there just isn't ever an ending, but rather a cycle (if you've watched the movie you'll understand what I mean). A flaw, and a blaring one, is it's characters. They are very underdeveloped. Characters will make an appearance and disappear into thin air. No mention of them. It's like the film actively had a trash bin and threw out characters once they reached the screentime limit. I feel as though there were scenes cut as well as some of the events that took place in succession didn't seem to quite bind together in respect to the movies timeline. Of course this is always bound to happen, not every scene makes it in, but it seems like important ones were cut. The thing that bothered me most about the movie was that it was saying it was "this" to cover up the fact that it was "that". It said this was a reincarnation film, but it really was a possession film. It follows the same tropes as one, and the rules of the film are nearly identical to that of a possession film. I find it cute that there was a scene where the Doctor ( who's name I forget, my point with the characters...) has a line that says that Miles ISN'T possessed because possession is when a nonhuman entity invaded a human host. I heard that as, "This movie is not a possession movie because we're dIfFeREnT". Clever hidden message by the screenwriters I suppose. This film falls flat with it being so mediocre in plot and that it tries so hard to SAY it's something that it isn't. I can almost tell there were too many hands in the cookie jar with ideas. The plot screams of "and then" transitions. It's like some guy came into the studio with a film idea and was like "I want you to make a scary ghost movie" to the screen writer. Where the screen writer asks "About what?" In which the clever man breaks out a script that he wrote himself, possibly while high and watching the Insidious movies, and hands it to the screen writer. The screen writer looked over it and said "so you want us to make a possession movie? I mean sure I can talk to the director I work for and-" where he gets cut off by the clever dude who shouts "ITS NOT POSSESSION, ITS REINCARNATION" where he then proceeds to green out on the floor of the screen writer's office. I'm being harsh to the film but only because there really was a good idea here. However it was squandered underneath a lack of identity and voice. The film says nothing. At least there's a few semi-good jump scares...