Sandee Harris

The best thing about this movie was the George Romero shout out, other than that it sucked. An hour in, still nothing happening, though I pretty much knew what would happen in the end -- but why make it so draggy and boring leading up to this point which was pretty anticlimactic in the end and didn't add up in a lot of ways. Don't waste your time!

The dialogue was inauthentic and affected. The script was murky. I wasn't sure about what was going on. Jennifer Lawrence was stiff, and her hair was too clean and shiny to reflect somebody poor on hard times -- they should have at least greased her hair up a little. Not to say you can't be poor and good looking -- even her brother and sister were great looking and clean. They had a closet full of great looking boots and Ree wore different hats -- clean hats. Finally, the situation with her dad was improbable to me. I think they might have hired locals for the party scene -- that's what the characters should have looked like. Even the woman who roughed her up, though a bit wrinkled and tough looking, was too symmetrical. She's one of those actors who's actually beautiful outside of this role. This is one of those movies that lose me a quarter way in. At that point I began surfing the web and puttering around my house. How this movie got four stars confuses the bejesus out of me. How? Why?

It opened with promise but didn't go anywhere. It was common with some forced pathos. Besides, Desi Arnaz, Jr. didn't do his father justice. Desi Arnaz had fierce intelligence and swagger. His son was weak and lacking in his portrayal. He didn't even really have an accent. His voice was nasally and his accent was vague and nondescript. I give Mambo Kings a big fat Nope.

The shock effects in this movie have been over used in the last 20 years. At a certain point I knew what to expect, so the chills were minimal. There was the metaphor of the trauma that some of us carry inside of us which was literally depicted when the monster reaches into Rose's mouth to climb in. I was over the movie by then. The visual cliches were tiring. There were also a few things in the script that didn't quite gel. It wasn't tight. Aside from It Follows, no one has been able to do psychological horror well since The Blair Witch Project.

Whew. Glad I came in here to see that others find it cliched and boring. The director could stand lessons from the masters of film direction and horror, John Carpenter, Brian De Palma, and Rob Reiner. They create camera work and scenes that cause visceral reactions. I hardly flinched at the scenes in the Grudge that were supposed to be scary. If a movie doesn't keep my attention after a half hour, I turn it off, which is what I did. Life's too short and there are great movies I could better spend time watching. Either way, there will always be markets for movies like this.

Loved it. This material has Rob Zombie's name all over it for a remake.

Low budget but good story and good creepy classic Halloween fun. Well constructed. That Stigmata dance scene is EVERYTHING.