Reviews

Man. The acting is good, the production quality is great, the concept is interesting, but... it was a frustrating film with a lot or overdone tropes.

It's 2023 and we still have the concerned teacher meeting with the oblivious parent about the troubled child to show them the disturbing drawings the child has been making. I audibly sighed when I saw where that scene was going. Why is this still a thing? How can someone write that and no one says "but this has been done a thousand times."

This film could have been 10 stars (it wasn't) and that ending still would have knocked it down to a 1. Yeah, keep beating on the window instead of running out the door to rescue your child. And then it just... ends? Okay.

The kid is right-the mother is a terrible person. There's never any discussion with the child or exploration of why the child is saying the things she's saying. "bUt YoUr NaMe Is MiA." Okay. So talk to her about why she thinks she's Alice. Every time the child is acting out, the mother freaks out and shuts her down. Awful parenting that had me, as a parent, getting irrationally angry at the mother. I suspect it was because of her guilt and wanting to shut down any revisiting of her past, but it was just frustrating to watch.

While I'm giving this 1 star I wouldn't necessarily advise someone against watching it. It's entertaining enough and something to pass the time, but I won't lie when I say it's full of cliches, predictable, and not something you'll remember. But I'm pretty picky about films, so I think if you don't care that much you'll still enjoy it.

I really tried to give this movie a chance. Even with the description not being something I vibed with, I saw the high ratings and it was free to watch, so why not.

I'm sorry, but who in their gosh darned mind gave this film more than 5 stars? I've WATCHED 5 star movies that were significantly better than this. I know it's subjective, but, I really can't wrap my mind around it.

Things consistently made no sense. Why didn't the pervert dude she passed it onto see IT for like 3 days? That was never explained. & at one point she saw some dudes on a boat, stripped into her undies and went into the water (towards them?)... what happened? What was the point? The scene at the pool, why did they think electrocuting IT would work after seeing it get up after being shot "dead"? And when they shot IT in the pool, she leaned over and the pool was clouding up with tons of blood. WHAT HAPPENED. So after that, it's sex with her first kiss, to pass it onto him (I think). Then First Kiss drives by some prostitutes who idk does he sleep with them or not? Now main character and first kiss are walking down the sidewalk holding hands. I think he's being followed? AND IT ENDS. What a mess.

And yeah the bobbies. The filmmakers were really horny or something because there's so many unnecessary bobbies hanging out of shirts.

It's a dumb movie.

These live actions need to just start calling themselves "inspired by" instead of "based off of." If you took away her name, and I guess her two-toned hair, nothing about this story is reminiscent of Cruella. The whole movie is extremely cringe, especially her transition into Cruella as well as her mother's ridiculous death. They're really out there making dogs the villains in this. And then the death of "Estella." dear lord. Honestly, a team of animators in the 70s did a better job, and I'm sure their budget was significantly lower. This movie was too focused on fashion/costumes, CGI dogs, and their soundtrack, to actually write a decent movie. If it was for kids, fine. But remember this is for 13+. Overall it was just worse than I imagined.

I feel like the best horrors and thrillers are the ones where you really get into the protagonist's head and can feel that sense of terror and fear that they're feeling. This had none of that.

Kat's transition into becoming possessed... was not there. It just happened. We barely linger around her character or *feel* anything. She and Rose never formed any kind of bond, or spent more than a few minutes together. We didn't truly get to watch Rose become afraid of what was happening around her. Her death was sudden, and extremely predictable. No suspense, not once. Nothing to feel.

Also, whatever possessed Kat, there's no backstory to what it is or why it claimed her or why it needs these people dead and to have their heads.

Rose's parents acted... weird. Especially her mother. There was something eerie about them but nothing came of it. There was supposed to be something "shocking" about them unknowingly helping their daughter's killer but it just wasn't enough of a twist. And their demise seemed kind of abrupt and silly.

The whole film just felt very lackluster to me. I think it would have been good to focus on the two girls a lot more, create a connection with the audience, really zone in on the emotions and of what's happening to them. When Kat finally kills Rose, it should have come as a huge shock/twist and devastated us. They told us Rose was already dead way too soon in the film, and it was blatantly clear who the killer is not long after.

I wanted to like the movie. The bit of a sneak peek Netflix showed me looked interesting and I was intrigued by the description. Unfortunately I just didn't enjoy this film at all.