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
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