Reviews

Rich white people save a town.

My favorite part was that a guy falls down a mine shaft, is perfectly ok and drives home :) just like in real life.

Romance blossoms, a rag tag group of dancers learn to put on a routine that brings down the house and a kid teaches a man that looks like a portly Richard Dreyfuss the meaning of cmas - all in 2 days story time.

2010 was clearly an interesting time for making hallmark movies.

I am a fan of Flanagan's work. I enjoyed his other series and overall I'm a fan of slow burn horror. I enjoyed this series and thought that it had a lot of great ideas in it. Unfortunately, I felt that it stumbled in the penultimate episode and really blew the tension in the finale. I respect that this is his vision and was executed the way that he wanted, but I have to state the things that really stopped me.

:Spoilers (of course):

1) At the end of the penultimate episode, I wondered...how are they going to stop them? How are they going to get all of the vampires in one place so that they could take them all out? My best guess heading in is that they would do some sort of take on the "take out the elder vampire and the rest fall" ,but ultimately it was ....their own stupidity. I understand the character motivations and the biblical implications, but wow. As a viewer, it was so obvious what was going to happen the second that they stated the plan. This killed the tension and really shot the proverbial load. (I am not going to write another review for the other episode, but I also felt like it was underwritten that all of our "good guy" characters decided to go to the mass- which was another stupid decision by the characters because thats what had to happen for the plot to move forward)

2) No ticking clock. This absolutely needed someone to point out what time it was. There were multiple times where it seemed like the sun was going to creep out and put an end to the vampires. Not having this really took me out of it because I knew what was going to happen, but had no sense of when.

3) No Vampires: I understand that the idea is this world does not have vampires in pop culture, but it just felt off to have the viewer make that assumption. I think it would have been more effective to play on the religious aspect. Maybe Bev could have banned them as "occult books" from the school? I think a throwaway line would have gone a long way rather than just leaving it to the viewer. The creators had to know that this would be frustrating for people.

4) No attempt at survival: The vampires are immortal and indestructible. They couldnt have tried SOMETHING? What about going into the burning houses or putting the fires out? I know that you cant write to account for everything they could try, but I refuse to believe that they would just be resigned to fate like that. (it also frustrated me that they had the head vampire burn and no effect- so yea fire doesnt hurt them!)

Just some more things that felt off:

The cutting of the vampires wings and then he takes normal flight.

Not setting up the head vampire not paying attention to its surroundings when feeding

The comeuppance was so fast after the baddies did episodes and episodes of unforgivable things.

I can list more and ultimately it's a matter of taste and opinion, but I felt like this was a missed opportunity that really brought the rest of the series down as a whole. I feel like it's a challenge for slow burn works where the endings always feel like they needed more time.

The story is interesting but ultimately half of the talking heads have no credibility. "Youtuber" and "Web sleuths" spouting their opinions about the investigation. It's supernatural! Conspiracy by the hotel! Conspiracy by the cops! Conspiracy by the cops and hotel! Super natural again. Secret tuberculosis spreading conspiracy. What a waste of breath. I feel like it's a better exploration of social media mental health deficiency than true crime.

I went in with high expectations due to the strong concept, but the movie is laughable. Dumb people making dumb decisions until they die and the movie is over. No development , no suspense and nothing delivered.

I felt like I was in a coma during this movie. Overpaid taking out of library for free

Best part: the predator kills dudes in a van and the driver is like "it ok back there?" And the predator takes a detached arm with a thumbs up and shows it to the driver and he takes it as everything is ok

I enjoyed the first season, but thought that it had a lot of weaknesses and could have been better. 1) Fell victim to its tropes: there are a lot of familiar tropes and a lack of surprises throughout. There were a few storylines where I knew how they were going to play out, but they went on for another 1-3 episodes. I felt like they were more successful when they deviated. 2) Poor acting: I think the acting was OK, but a few of the relationships didn't really click for me. (Strong guy and Rumor girl) (Ellen Page and Creepy Obviously bad guy) 3) Slow in the wrong places: I felt like the show kept retreading the same ground while there were other areas that I was curious to see, but didnt get much attention; (More on Pogo's origins, Getting to know Ben more, more childhood scenes)

I found it entertaining but it really couldve been much better

+ The performances were good. Stallone and Jordan have a nice chemistry + I enjoyed the dialogue

• 40 minutes too long. When you strictly follow a predictable formula it drags when its this long.
• The story didnt click as a whole. I dont think that winning the championship should be a throwaway thing to start the movie, but some thing to build up to. I dont buy Adonis as champ. I dont buy someone with as little experience as Drago being able to shock a champ no matter how strong he is.
• muddled character motivations

-tonal clash - rocky 4 was an over the top cartoon - hard to believe it's the same universe

I would recommend this movie as a rental if you're into this kinda thing. I enjoyed a lot of what they did, but the whole just wasnt very fulfilling