TheLittleSongbird Saw 'The Crooked Man', being fond of horror regardless of budget (even if not my favourite genre) and being intrigued somewhat by the idea. Being behind on my film watching and reviewing, with a long to watch and review list that keeps getting longer, it took me a while to get round to watching and reviewing it.Giving 'The Crooked Man' a fair chance with being interest and apprehension, it turned out to be far better than expected. Won't say that 'The Crooked Man' is a great film (mediocre actually) because it isn't and the potential, while not wasted, is not fully lived up to. Considering the large number of films seen recently being mediocre and less and wasting potential, was expecting worse and was relieved that while wanting in a fair few areas it was actually one of my better recent low-budget viewings.'The Crooked Man' started off quite well, the first twenty minutes or so starting the film off on a promising, unsettling and atmospheric note that really does intrigue. Production values did have some eeriness and nowhere near as cheap as expected.The setting is effectively spooky. Initially, there are spooky and suspenseful moments, it isn't dull, and the storytelling in the first half does intrigue.However, the story was severely wanting in the second half after starting off promisingly. It is very disjointed and after the promising start the final third especially loses atmosphere, one loses interest and things start to not make sense. Too much of the film is vague and doesn't explore some elements and story strands enough, some dropped soon after being introduced, go nowhere or serve much point.Ending is unsatisfying, on top of feeling hasty there are too many loose ends hanging in the air. Got the sense that the writers didn't know how to end the film. Would have liked much more tension and suspense (where there is barely any of either), scares could have been more consistent (again nowhere near enough) and some weren't surprising enough and had no atmosphere, the over-obvious sound not helping. Found too the script to lack natural flow and with a fair bit of cheese and blandness going on, and the characters bland with some adopting some annoying and not always logical decision making. There is very little menace to the villain, the direction is phoned and generally the acting is subpar with Michael Jai White being little more than a barely used commercial device seemingly.Overall, mediocre. 4/10 Bethany Cox

gerry barnaby Film Reviewer Likes : "Beware Beware the crooked man is coming for your soul" I'l give credit where credit is due director Jesse Holland has done their best with this film, although this movie lack the certain things that make a horror film creepy although it's not a bad movie to watch. A slumber party for 12 year old girls turn from a fun time in to a nightmare as one of the girls dare's the other to sing a creepy song , this is no ordinary song "oh no!" this is a song with a curse of the crooked man if you sing his song the crooked man come for you and everyone around you which is what the whole theme of this film is about.Some areas of this film is good giving the acting is pretty average with the script writing , if you remember ("conjuring 2 Enfield poltergeist") this very nursery song if you can call it that was mention in that film in a creepy way.The film quality is very low budget special from the IPF industry as some of the effect are from the low C.G.I range , Im surprised to actually see Michael Jai White in this film playing Milo who trying to stop this supernatural crooked man. Normal when you see Micheal in a film it normal the martial art type films but it's a welcome change even tho it's a cameo role for him really as he doesn't have many scenes.The atmosphere of the film is slightly creepy with the crooked man him self , which the concept for a horror villain as this static-y look and disjointed appearance go hand-in- hand with the spectacular nursery rhyme that accompanies him. Although the visual effect in this film aren't real high budget which is a ashame but this film does have that syfy channel feel to it , which this may appeal to some people but this was a one time watch for me. One thing this film does offer to horror fans in the brutal bloody scene which most horror fans will be happy with , it does offer some creepiness in part so this will depend on whether this film is your taste or not but i wouldn't expect anything special here. Dislikes : The film does start off creepy but where this film fails is this creepiness start to fade as the film goes on , this is partly because of the visual effect on the crooked man which i feel could have been done better. I mean this is a way if you look at "conjuring 2" we saw a brief figure of the crooked man walking down the corner now this i done with C.G.I it look creepy, this if I'm honest should've been what this concept should of looked like the film and atmosphere would be better through the whole film.There is a flaw in this film concept that didn't make sense , since one of the character left the town everything stop which is a bit odd because in reality this thing wouldn't of stop which is mentioned in the film by Micheal character which is a big flaw in this film. Overall : Don't expect anything special , not a bad film but could've been improved in areas

FlashCallahan At a slumber party, twelve-year-old Olivia is blamed for the horrific and mysterious death of her friend after singing a song, created by a recluse called Milo, which summons the titular demonic figure. Returning home six years later, a string of unusual deaths lead Olivia to believe that she's still being haunted by whatever she saw that night.Once the rhyme is sung, everyone in the house is cursed to die by his hands.......For a straight to TV horror movie, particularly one aired on the SyFy channel, this has really good production values, and harks back to the slew of cheap but successful horror films that were released thanks to the success of Scream.It's a simple premise, sing a song and you will eventually die at the hands of the titular demon, who looks like a cross between The Babadook and Nosferatu, on. A jumping video tape.And it's nothing more than your atypical horror film that ticks every box in the correct order, and it's all the better for not trying to be anything else.More or less every friend from her past she bumps into ends up having a visit from The Crooked Man, and thanks to the success of Lights Out, he can only attack you in the dark, and only you can see him.The origin story of The Crooked Man is nothing more than having an excuse to have someone fairly famous appear in the film, and this time it's martial arts star Michael Jai Whit who gets top billing here, but appears for about five minutes in total.It doesn't matter though because the rest of the cast are fine, and it's surprisingly nasty for a TV movie.So all in all, it's nothing special, but because it doesn't try to be anything more than what it is, it's all the better for it.

GL84 After getting released from an asylum, a troubled woman attempting to get her life back in order becomes convinced the entity that framed her for murdering her friend is back finishing the job and races to find a way of stopping it to save her friends.For the most part this one was quite the enjoyable effort. What really works well here is the fact that there's quite an enjoyable and engaging atmosphere present here that makes for quite a fun and engaging time here. That comes along mostly from the titular creature itself, which is quite the impressive and chilling entity that works really well in delivering a solid concept for a horror villain as the static-y look and disjointed appearance go hand-in- hand with the spectacular nursery rhyme that accompanies him as there's an incredibly strong mystery about him and his appearance here which makes for a rather imposing villain. As well as the strong visuals and the great villain, there's a lot to really like here in regards to how much action plays a part of this one as the encounters here are truly top-notch. The opening sleepover backstory that sets up the whole film is highly atmospheric and works with some fine nightmarish images in the blackout and the poem setting everything in motion before showing the actual killer getting in a nice shock, the scene with the creature appearing in the hospital is rather chilling and the rather frenzied and chilling attack in the singer's dressing room is a nice showstopper that spreads itself quite nicely with it's rather stylish setting and brutal actions. That carries along into the other attacks on the friends throughout here, with the friends all getting creepy attacks by the creature as well with their all being done in the darkness forcing along some really atmospheric times here, and that sets up the big scene at the end where he's confronted in the dilapidated house where the brawling makes for quite a fun time while the tactics employed against him is quite an enjoyable and impressive outing overall. Alongside the great kills which are quite brutal and intense throughout here, these manage to make this one fast-paced and enjoyable enough to really enjoy it over the few minor flaws. The main issue with the film here is the fact that it really doesn't make sense why the film's rampage is halted when she leaves the group, as it's given a minor gloss-over yet it doesn't have a definitive answer that really makes any sense. This is a rather big problem and isn't really explained at all which is a rather big issue to have here since that pretty much carries along throughout the movie as a whole. Likewise, the fact that her friends are so hostile following the revelation of the deaths to each other and her stories are given some semblance of reality, yet they still carry on without much change in attitude which really isn't that enjoyable coming off as yet another incarnation of the cliché. Other than these minor issues, this one was quite a bit of fun.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.