Pat Bateman

It's just not good. The premise isn't new and is executed better in a plethora of movies that isn't this one. Save your time and watch The Skeleton Key (2005) or Guillermo Del Toros Cabinet of Curiosities EP. 3 "The Autopsy". Both are better. What else can I say? Most other reviews have it pegged: bad script, bad acting, sleezy, cheesy, trying for a throwback and failing to capture the positives of the films it sought to emulate. I pretty much gave it a two because it wasn't The Wickeds (2005) with Ron Jeremy.

This movie has some identity confusion. The first two acts may as well be a Lifetime channel thriller. I already guessed the reveal (which falls flat). Then, in the third act, it switches to a drama. The third act isn't that bad when judged alone, but it's part of a whole and cannot buoy the rest of this mess. The best actors in the movie are Kyle Gallner and Reina Hardesty (as the main character's best friend Brit). Summer Phoenix and Grace Van Dien do an abysmal job with line delivery for most of the movie, not that the dialogue is high quality. It's as of the writer built a movie AROUND the climax and the dialogue prior to it was just to fill space. The main character, Anna (Grace Van Dien), has no distinguishing character traits beside naivety. I decided to watch this because Kyle Gallner is in it. I would have rather re-watched Outsiders.

Lacking in detail. Boring, fast relationship between the main characters. Diana isn't a teenager, but may as well be. I find it hard to believe she's a doctor of anything. Basically, it feels like True Blood and Harry Potter had a confused lovechild. I gave it two stars because I like Matthew Goode and it had some Being Human actors I was happy to see.

I’ve watched all of Season 1 (as according to Netfilx and Wikipedia for the CW show). I’ve watched part of Season 2. I’ve tracked down the original first 5 episodes that it seems the CW does not want viewed. 1. The original first five episodes were Definitely the best set. 3 episodes out of the 5 I would consider the best of the series. They felt more like they were meant for adults and maybe that’s why the CW didn’t want them. 2. Not bad at all. There are some really full stories and wonderful characters in a lot of these episodes (which I was quite impressed with considering the run time). I called up a friend and told them that this is diversity in a horror anthology DONE RIGHT. Of course there will be some hit and miss, but I didn’t see a bad actor in season 1. A lot of episodes felt more childish than the original 5, but they were still quite enjoyable. 3. Season 2...is pretty awful. I’ve been skipping around in the season (So I'm pretty much referring to the episodes "Eliot", "Instinct", "Imposter", and "Manifest Destiny" for this review), but most of them I’ve seen so far (with exception of Ibeji) have had terrible actors, terrible characters AND terrible, extremely childish stories. While the elements of diversity in season one and the original 5 were very well done, season 2 brings in cheap, thin semblances of characters that seem more like Mary Sue tropes just to play nice with the audience and current culture trends. What a shame. It's not doing anyone any favors. No one likes Mary Sue. Mary Sue is relatable to no one. "Eliot", in particular of those I've seen, is awful. *Note to audience: if you want a good episode with a trans protagonist, find "Singularity". All in all, I think it’s funny AND tragic that a series could be a shining example in one half of what to do, and then a shining example of what not to do.

Not that bad. The cinematography is good. I really liked that the exploration of the room was not rushed. It looked like a really cool setup for an escape room. I liked the lighting (dim, yet still easy to see). The characters were good. The acting isn't bad. I would definitely say it's not great, but I felt like most heightened emotions were believable and it in no way was distractingly bad (the least able to act was the father). I have seen worse acting from projects with more money attached that people don't seem to judge as harshly...*cough*Lucifer*cough,cough*... I liked the LACK of gore. This could have easily been a slasher with supernatural elements, but replaced a lot of visual gore with mystery. I think this wasn't a CHOICE, really, but down to the fact this was a made for TV movie and USA maybe be being very choosey where it spends its visual violence points. I DID NOT like the ending. **SPOILER AHEAD** It was stated that the inventor was trying to talk to the dead, but it SEEMS like the inventor accomplished that by breaking time (so many clocks and time references). I don't feel like this was truly fleshed out. I don't feel like we learned enough about the inventor (or JOSIE, for that matter) to justify the loopy ending. It felt tacked on just because it's "scary".

I agree with critics: beautiful to look at, not good to watch. AWFUL, over the top storylines. Everyone has an INSANE backstory to the point of terribly cheesy. Nonsensical twists and emotional cues for the audience. You're supposed to feel bad for Ratched...but, really, you shouldn't because she's a terrible person even if she "did it all for her brother". It's as if they made everyone in the show "worse" people just so you'd feel for the main character (they are either worse to the point of caricatures or the show frames them as bad...but they objectively aren't...). I have no idea why people consider this excellent. It's like a really polished soap opera on speed.

Seriously upset this show was canceled TWO MONTHS after the first episode dropped. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It avoided tidy explanations to a lot of things as well as perfectly happy endings. It melded a supernatural world pretty well with a realistic thread of reactions (like the main character having his mother committed to an institution in reaction to her going insane). It wasn't a MOVING piece of media, but it was a far better representation of demons than in garbage like Lucifer (seriously, why would the king of hell wear bad guyliner?) I'm really tired of good shows getting canceled by streaming networks.