Leofwine_draca I wanted to like ELFIE HOPKINS but wasn't really sure what to think. The film itself is a misguided little mystery mixed with horror and blackly comic overtones. The main problem it suffers from is that Jaime Winstone is a pretty poor and unlikeable lead actress and the supposed comedy double act of her and her pot-smoking friend doesn't come across very well, these characters feel desperately like they want to be an likable awkward hero a la SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD but they just feel irritating and self-centred.Otherwise the small-town mystery is built up nicely and I particularly liked the kooky members of Gammon family, lead by the dastardly Rupert Evans (a guy well versed in playing baddies after this and his turn in the TV miniseries WORLD WITHOUT END). But ELFIE HOPKINS is better at building atmosphere than it is incident, and the action when it hits is very poorly handled and cheap-looking. This is particularly noticeable in the climax, which should be a large-scale and exciting set-piece but instead which comes across as completely lacklustre and disappointing thanks to indifferent direction. CGI blood effects don't really help either. This film is an interesting stab at doing something different but it's only semi-successful in my opinion.

KineticSeoul From the DVD cover it seems like a gruesome slaughter fest of a movie. But that is far from it, in fact I needed to sit through a very slow paced mundane amateur detective plot to get to those scenes. And even when it got to it, there really isn't any shock factor. The cover for the DVD case for this movie is false marketing. It has two guys with shot guns next to the female protagonist and they aren't even pivotal to the plot. The nerdy sidekick in the movie is with the protagonist most of the way through, helping her with her own investigation and crap. But I guess they didn't put him on the cover cause they wanted the movie to appear all badass. The build up is just plain dull and bored me to tears and the protagonist Elfie is just not very likable. And I personally didn't care what happened to her. A character that is brash and smug can be somewhat likable but that isn't the case here. The story is basically about a mysterious family moving into the neighborhood and that family looks like they came off the set of "Twilight". With a husband that acts like a vampire, to a Gothic wife, to a vampire wannabe son that is into shooting and hunting, and a daughter that dresses up like a doll and collects Japanese stuff. And when Elfie sees couple of oddity inside the mysterious family she decides to stick her nose in. And goes about it in a very amateur way. Nothing is entertaining, clever or thrilling about this movie. There are no twist and you can literally predict how everything is going to play out for the most part. And the climax is just plain dumb. In fact a lot of stuff in this flick and scenarios doesn't make much sense. It was just almost unbearable to sit through the build up and the climax isn't even worth it. There is better mystery thrillers so pass on this one. Not even worth the rent. The movie is about a hour and a half long but felt way longer when it came to the running time. Oh the sidekick reminded me of Elijah Wood and he was alright but as for the main protagonist not so much.2/10

dean-baldwin Now before i start i must say that I bore no grudge towards anyone or anything to do with this film before I endured it! .So where do i begin i randomly choose a film to watch one night and unluckily the hand of fate fancied giving me a dry slap because it was a film called Elfie Hopkins. Elfie Hopkins is a black comedy, horror, thriller about a teenager and her male mate Parker getting stoned and wanting to be detectives. Elfies main desire to be a gum shoe is due to the accidental death of her mother when she was younger and Parkers desire to be a detective is just because he Fancy's Elfie YAWN. So anyway new family arrives people start disappearing and as you can imagine its all very predictable. Jaime Winstone is just plain annoying with all her face pulling and trying to copy her dads mannerisms in the main role and most of the acting is done with little to no enthusiasm or conviction its like the actors didn't even be-leave that this project was any good so did not bother to act. Ray Winstone turns up as the local butcher on two occasions making the film almost credible but as soon as his 4 minutes are over you remember that your watching a unimaginative piece of dry rot. The film plods on with the introduction of Elfies feuding posh neighbors and it all just seems so pointless it almost hurts, the ending is so transparent from the beginning I thought to myself well maybe the characters and twists are going to be good but I was wrong there are no twists and the characters are painfully stereotypical. With a running time of only 89 minutes I figured at least it will all be over soon but no it felt like I was watching it for 3 hours I have always prided myself on never giving up on a film and turning it off but I came very close with this one. I am sure the director Ryan Andrews may of thought he was making a quirky Black comedy with a great sense of teen angst combined with humor but this is not the case. The humor is near non existent the horror elements are dire the directing shows no charisma or personality at all. Its a paint by numbers story with poor direction from start to finish. SPOILER ALERT ha ha as if you can spoil this movie by revealing and plot twists because their is none the whole film is pointless crap made to keep Ray Winstones daughter in a job do yourself a favor don't watch this crap and if you are tempted don't say i did not warn you this film is drivel.

waltercraig Do not waste your time and money on this film. I could act better than Jaime Winston, and I've never done any acting. All she does is say her lines in a flat monotone, while giving the impression that she would rather be somewhere else altogether. None of the other actors are much better, to be perfectly honest, including Ray Winstone. Everything about this film is entirely unconvincing, and you will know it in the first 2 minutes. I stuck it out for 30 minutes before I walked out, and that was only because I had paid £8 for a ticket. I figured that I would have a better time going home, doing some decorating and then watching the paint dry. It was a spur of the moment decision to go see this film - if only I had read the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes beforehand.