clintstevens
I swore I would never review a movie I didn't watch from beginning to end, but I can't help myself. I watched it as long as I could stand it but didn't make it to the end. Sorry for that but I have to share my feelings. Out of curiosity I wanted to check what type ratings viewers gave this dumb flick, so I scanned the reviews, which is part of the reason I decided to review it. Did I miss something? I watched a sleeping beauty who never learned to apply make-up in moderation. I watched the 'hero' being tormented with bad dreams and going in rooms he was warned not to enter.I can only guess that those who gave this joke of a film a great review are employees of the film company who were instructed to do so or relatives of the cast. 'Great', 'outstanding' and 'good' are descriptions that have no business being in any review of this 'cursed' cinematic drivel.
sakurako-718-306418
When we saw the trailer, my husband and I thought it looked very promising. I had this nagging feeling that the movie is going to be a huge disappointment and it was.From the absurdly annoying trope of protecting the secret of the evil better than the evil itself through avoiding any sort of explanation or reasoning that a human being would understand all the way down to rushing into action before getting the full story, the characters in this movie are painfully stupid. They are also extremely half-dimensional and the tl;dr backstory dialogue(that feels so forced, it broke through my window and stared me down) does not help build any sort of connection with the viewer. as each and every one of them is a walking stereotype(from the smart jackass to the tortured artist) There are so many attempts at jump scares, even the characters in the movie stopped caring towards the end. The "gore" is awkward at best and the most horror I felt was when I realised I paid money to see this movie. The "twist" wasn't even remotely surprising as it follows a very common horror movie trope and became apparent within the first half of the movie. There is no real villain, no protagonist, no resolution, no plot The ending has a distinct Rose Red vibe to it. As in, this should have been a TV mini series with 2 more episodes instead of a standalone movie. I guess they seriously thought they were getting a sequel.
If there is anything good to be said about this movie, it'd be that it creates a rather beautiful world with a Gothic feel to it. The visuals(excluding *cough* blood) and the music are quite good and it's a shame they ended up in a movie so shallow an ant would have a hard time drowning in it.
Darkskynet
Why would I choose to watch this? The visionary and aesthetic pleasure of fantasy elements in the trailer, along with the take on a classic fairy tale peaked my interest. The editing was very clunky and slow. Those SURPRISE and WATCH OUT moments were hidden by the lack of fast cutting and a fairly monotone performance by Ethan Peck. All of this in the opening sequence and then continued it's theme through out the film which ultimately led to a dull storyline. So what's left?The most disappointing aspect was the aesthetic pleasures. This 'perfect' sleeping princess looked like a child in fancy dress. Her scenes were designed too flat. Her extravagant garments lacked UMFF as there was no lighting or exceptional colours on the background nor her dress. I was watching it, shouting at the colour correcter asking him/her why didn't they enhance the colour blue!This film lacked depth in plot, acting and mise-en-scene. I'd say it's probably an entertaining film for younger teens, 13/14years.. but not for anyone else.
amiemica
This movie has a very interesting take on the various versions of the Sleeping Beauty story. It even references the Brothers Grimm version 'Briar Rose'. It is obviously working with a low budget and is very cheesy throughout. However, unlike other viewers, I feel that it pretty much explained everything; it was just very quick, rushed and could be easily missed. For those who are a little confused and are reading these reviews for a bit of clarification on some parts of the movie: the curse came about because Thomas' ancestors sacrificed a virgin to a version of Satan or a very powerful demon. The sacrificed woman became the vessel for the evil god/demon to enter this world and bring about the apocalypse. Apparently good djinn worked together to keep the woman asleep, which in turn kept the evil god/demon imprisoned. Because of the evil act of sacrificing the virgin to the evil god/demon, the Kaiser bloodline men were born with demons inside them. Presumably, they performed the sacrifice to get some sort of power but in fact were really opening themselves up to be the servants of the god/demon. The Kaiser men were bound to the imprisoned god/demon, and so could not leave the house. Maybe they knew the full truth, maybe not. Most likely not, since the djinn were necessary to guard the sleeping god/demon to keep one of them from awakening it. Since Thomas had virtually no knowledge of any of it, all he could do was go with what he was being told. He thought the Veiled Demon-djinn was evil and found a way to get to the woman and awaken her. He had no way of knowing that she was not a sleeping woman under a curse and that he was the one who was cursed. Therefore, he freed the god/demon and it in turn, freed the generations of demons that had been stored in his bloodline and proceeded to begin the apocalypse. This would be an awesome movie to be redone by a more skilled writer/director/crew/etc and be more fully fleshed out and explored. This movie is worth watching for the interesting story.
AD
