Hellions

This experience is hard to describe, but the predominant impression is something between fascination, interest and facepalm. The closer it gets to the ending, the worse things are. The beginning is not too shabby, though, McDonald delivers a pretty creative and scary picture, which unfortunately crumbles in his hands after some time. The moment it switches to… well, actually, I don’t know what that was exactly, some sort of dream reality, perhaps?… you loose the bearings of the plot and the rules that apply to it. On top of that, there are so many approaches at play and they could result in anything from a brutal home invasion or a poetic feeling, to a bizarre surrealist thing, but all those things together are actually weird. In any case, Hellions has a couple of interesting scenes and the film is worth watching to make your own opinion. It’s certainly one of the most interesting new things around, even if I’m far from an explicit compliment. (09/18/2015)

In this dream-like mishmash, nothing makes sense and nothing works either in terms of building either suspense or a “fantasy” world. Moreover, it has the worst possible, cheaply colored visuals that are supposed to infuse the film with a unique atmosphere, as well as a tacky electronic soundtrack. Getting knocked up at seventeen must be depressing and confusing, but this super cheap take on that premise is terribly bad. Unless you are constantly high on LSD or ’shrooms. (09/17/2017)