you should have left was written and directed by David Koepp and stars KevinBacon and is about a man and his family, they go to a secluded house in Wales he's had a difficult past there's a crime that some people believe he committed but he has always maintained his innocence and while they're at this house strange things start to happen writing appears in his notebook that he's positive he didn't write hallways seemed to stretch on endlessly and a mystery develops about the house that he tries to solve I was really looking forward to this movie I'm a fan of David Koepp I like a lot of his films that he has written and some that he's directed as far as directing goes stir of echoes which also stars Kevin Bacon is really good I like a secret window, a lot and as far as writing goes spider-man panic room Jurassic Park, I've really enjoyed a lot of his screenplays some of them are not as good though Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull being a prime the example you should have left as a plum house production and in some way sit follows all of the rules that Blum House looks for a scare every 10 minutes or so secluded location limited cast certain things that Blum house always wants this movie fits into those guidelines very well but at the same time it doesn't and I'll get into that this was a vastly disappointing film for me in a way I approach the movie almost like it was a mash-up between a secret window and stir of echoes to kept films the IMDB synopsis still, as I sit he rerecording this the review describes this movie as a screenwriter who's going to a secluded place to finish a film that he's writing and then crazy shit happens and I thought to myself well that's basically a secret window except in secret window Johnny Depp plays novelist at a secluded location kind of losing his mind and it's got the same team from the stir of echoes so it's basically secret window and stirs of echoes combined this movie's gonna be awesome unfortunately this film is nothing like those movies not just in quality but in a story he's definitely nota screenwriter, 

I don't know why that's still on IMDB the original book this film was based off is about a screenwriter and that synopsis seems to be written from the book synopsis not the actual film as Forrest Kevin Bacon's character he's basically a nobody he's defined entirely by an event in his past we know so little about basically described to us by his wife as they talked to their young daughter, she learns about it for the first time and she figures out her father's history and it's this moment that's supposed to sort of developing the story but it does very little for us it's a movie filled with noncharacters Amanda Seyfried Seyfried, I never get her name right she is also an on character she plays an actress and that's really it she has no history she has very little development she's basically there as a device to get Kevin Bacon alone in the house sometimes technically this is a haunted house movie but the entire thing is shot in one of the most un-scary looking houses I've seen in the film recently this is a super modern sleek fucking la looking design if I've ever seen one it's extremely well lit too there's light everywhere you expect darkness in a haunted house movie or a horror film or just a plain old scary the movie which this is trying to be there's a sequence early on where he's going around the house turning off all the lights figuring out where all the light switches are and even as he turns them off there's still too much light I was never scared once during the 93 minutes of this movie, in fact, it takes an hour literally, one hour before they start to discover a mystery about the house they start measuring the walls on the inside and the outside and they discover that inside there's more room than on the outside how does that happen and I was like okay that's kind of fucking interesting if only that didn't happen an hour into the movie and maybe like 20 or 25 minutes and we're at the end of the second act start of the third and we're just now discovering some things about this house for that first hour every single scare is built around a dream sequence the film opens with a double dream sequence someone wakes up and then someone wakes up again and I instantly was like oh boy so since in the original book the main character was a screenwriter

 I can only assume that kept decided to scrap that because he already made secret window which was about a novelist kind of losing his mind in a secluded space so I'm assuming he was like I don't want to repeat myself so I'll scrap that instead, we get nobody I have no idea who Kevin Bacon is in this movie or what he does or what he wants to do what his dreams and hopes are I have no idea since his wife is an actress I guess the assumption is is that she makes the money and he stays at home okay we're in 2020 I understand that happens but for the main character in a movie to have no goals no thoughts no aspirations he doesn't seem to want to do anything except go on a vacation it's a really boring character eventually the film does find an emotional core of some kind and it starts to feel more like a drama and less like horror and it feels like kept couldn't really land on either one while making them it's great to have drama in horror and all great horror does but when your film seems largely about a drama and a family dispute of domestic dispute of some kind that's not gonna work for a scary movie it eventually becomes less about you should have left this haunted house and more of you should leave your haunted marriage and that's interesting but it's too little too late and I didn't care about these characters before and you're not gonna magically get me to care about them now there's also tons of unanswered questions in the movie and it seems to fall back on what 1408 fall back on which was we're in a crazy fucked up location and anything can happen right that works in 1408 there was such a great set up between Samuel l.jackson and John Cusack in that movie and it was also just a really fucking good movie with a great the character that I understood and I cared about whereas in this movie so many things happen like a long walking sequence with animal growls coming out of the woods and you never really learned what that was all about

 I guess we're just supposed to assume it was animals and this long walking sequence ends up in a location and you're like okay I saw that coming a mile away and that felt very 1408 as well those unexplained notes in his book one of them is explained sort of the here isn't and even in their attempt to explain it doesn't really make sense for why it happened when you start to really think about it it throws in this unnecessary sci-fi element to it that just makes the whole thing feel really convoluted and it's super undercooked you never really learn anything about it it's just this quick moment that seems almost like it was just a throwaway thing all of a sudden the film is basically a mash-up 1408 secret window and stir of echoes all films I like but it's just spare parts there's none of the ingenuity of their previous collaboration and it's also filled with entry-level scares for a horror movie shadows passing in front of the lens what is this place oh it was worth my 20bucks for fuck's sake slamming doors dream sequences it feels like kept hasn't had to impress a studio since the early 90s it seems like once he got Jurassic Park made it was like okay I'm good I don't have to impress anyone ever again but he still made good films into the mid-2000shis last film he directed Mordecai and now this I feel like he hasn't really had to work to get a script made in years and I could be wrong but if this were a spec script from an unknown writer it would get fucking shredded and never passed on to anyone if you emailed this script to an executive or to an agent they wouldn't even respond to you they would just throw it in a pile holy shit this movie actually kind of pissed me off a little bit I'm gonna give you should have left Addie Blum house has got to realize the yare only as good as those prestige filmmakers that they work with and that they just let do their thing like Leigh Whannell you know I mean Leigh Whannellis super talented The Invisible Man upgrade insidious saw that's a real talent but when you have movies like Fantasy Island and this truth or dare and all these shitty black Christmas like you're they're only as good as the people that work with them, unfortunately, you got to try harder bloom house love you but you gotta try harder guys thank you so much as always for look forward to more reviews very soon and if you like this you can comments write here and get stuck mine eyes