The Wailer 3 (2012) Reviews

• The Deep?

  jabrbi2014-02-04

  The only way I could tell this was a horror movie was because of the number of clichés it contained. You know the sort: the door handle is moving in an apparently empty house, only to open and reveal the nurse, there are mysterious bubbles in the pool, the police ignore all the missing people, and you HAVE to use music to let the audience know that this or that scene is meant to be scary. I was going to write that this film is about a haunted house, but it's really about a haunted pool, one that is deep enough to hide several bodies for a long, long time. The film starts with the drowning of a man, who turns out to be the grandfather, which prompts the arrival of the rest of the family so that the body count can increase. There's something in the pool that wants to kill. By a third of the way through the film, the only survivor is the father - the grandparents have drowned, or been asphyxiated, and the mother and children are gone, presumed drowned. And this is where the film loses all credibility - not that it had much to start with. The acting is very poor - Africa in particular is impressively wooden - and there are gaps in the story that aren't explained. For example, we jump from the raging storm when the father's family disappears and he is found in the pool, to the father in a wheelchair being looked after by Africa - an agency nurse. What happened? Were any bodies found? How much time elapsed? When did the faulty plumbing get fixed? (The faulty plumbing is an important driver of the story in the beginning.) And then the viewer starts to question the decisions made in the film; the biggest one being, why did the father end up in his mother-in-law's house after his accident? Why didn't he go back to his own home? Instead, he stays in a house where at least two people have died, one in officially suspicious circumstances. A house where the plumbing was non-existent before his accident and a house that's prone to lose power and the phone line during a light shower. It doesn't make sense. He'd go back to his own house straight away. But to continue the story, he has to stay in the house, otherwise we end up with a 30 minute film. The first third of the film works reasonably well, with a building of tension, despite the terrible acting and poor dialogue. One of the daughters wakes up screaming two nights in a row, the first night because there's water streaming down her wall. Is that real, a dream, or a manifestation of supernatural power? The next night there's stuff moving across her room. Is this real, or a dream, or more supernatural powers at work? However, the middle third drags, and drags, and drags. After his accident, the father is left in a wheelchair, so we have to endure the despair and depression of a cripple, who knows that the truth about his family has still to be revealed. It's all portrayed with tedious cliché and tedious cliché - drinking, depression, medication, listless poses, 5 o'clock shadow, wearing pyjamas all day, not eating, and so on. If you want to know how the story ends, then you'll have to endure this pointless, dreary process. Or just skip to about the hour mark in the film, or the hour and fifteen minutes mark if you just want to know the facts. At one point in the film, the father gives a guy $1000 to drive him a couple of miles to his mother-in-law's house. My first thought was, use that money to get the pool drained you idiot. Eventually the pool does get searched, and bodies are found, but the story doesn't end. We have to endure the terrible cliché of is-the-main-character-going-to-die-in-hospital-or-will-he-live scene. Sadly, it's not the end of the film, so you can guess what happens. Finally, after over 70 minutes, we finally start getting somewhere, and it turns out that someone has known what's been happening for the past 20 years, but he didn't bother telling anyone until over 3 months AFTER the father has lost his family. Oh For F**** Sake! Of course, the only way to end the curse/threat/danger is to drain the pool. How? Get in a big pump and drain the sucker? Of course not. You have to dive to the bottom of the pool and open the drain, at night. Well, no danger there then! Why not wait 8 hours and get in a big pump? Too easy. This being a very low budget film, there's very few special effects, which helps to keep the film grounded in reality, and shows how much money other films are wasting on SFX when a shadow, a silhouette, or some mud on the floor is just as eloquent at creating a scare. However, the director should have asked for a few retakes on some shots - particularly the underwater scenes, where supposedly dead characters have air bubbling out of their nose and mouth. And then there's the obsession that horror movies have where everything has to happen in almost total darkness. On a TV screen during the day all you see are vague shapes moving around for minutes at a time. Darkness on a screen is NOT scary. You have to show enough detail that is easy to see so that the audience can process the danger and react to it. Strident music and unidentifiable shadows just don't work. Eventually the film ends, at last, and it's time to reflect on what you've just seen. That's when you realise that a turtle (yes, a real turtle) steals the movie, and you know you've just wasted 90 minutes of your life, again.

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• Not quite a 1.7 ......

  dadatuuexx2012-10-22

  O.K.,we know right from the start,that this is not a blockbuster.One may even go as far as saying,'this is gonna be bad".I did,but sat down and went for it anyway.This timid Horror" movie plays like a made-for -television movie of the week,on Lifetime.Not to say its bad,just to say its not real good.Just O.K.,and that,s all.The actors do a good job,just nothing stellar.Same for the plot,just sorta plain,and over done.Not giving anything away,this is a ghost/ revenge from beyond story,and really rather formula,at that.Nothing shocking,over the top,or even cool.I just yelled out what was going to happen 15 minutes before it did in the movie..Right down to the "boy,i never even imagined it would end like that,and those last 10 seconds ! , who could have thought THAT was gonna happen ". Man,i guess it,s true...i WILL watch anything......!

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