Almost Mercy (2015) Reviews

• A simplistic horror film over all!

  InDyingArms2015-07-05

  Many horror films we movie goers watch nowadays fall flat from being near simplistic, or good. Surprisingly, "Almost Mercy" manages to display a solid, good horror film! First off, the execution of this film. The execution of this horror film was quite unique. It manages to display it's execution in the form of perhaps a drama film. The movie introduces a charming narration from certain characters of the movie, instead of simple convocations, and boring chatter. It adds some neat charm of which sticks out through out the entire film, making it quite enjoyable! Toward the end of the movie, which of course won't be spoiled, the movie takes on more elements on it's execution of which stands out to be unique, and entertaining to watch. The movie, along with that, also adds in an intriguing twist, once again ending up to be very entertaining, and extremely enjoyable. Next, the characters of the movie. Once again. The movie takes on this neat, unique tactic. Most horror films usually use recycled, clichéd characters, which can get quite tiring after a while. Luckily, the film surprisingly delivers some neat characters only seen in a rare collection of horror films in the past. Either way, the characters in this movie were interesting, showing unique personality, executions, etc. As said before, the movie delivers a character narration, of which ties in here. I felt as if the narration - like take on this horror film was necessary to say the least. The audience gets a full on view of what the characters are thinking, the audience also gets to experience how the characters will react, of which pays off as entertaining. Overall, the characters ranging from execution, to thought, and action was solid, and entertaining! Finally for the making of this film; the foundation, the plot. The plot felt new, and fresh. Something horror fans like myself have probably only seen once, or twice. For the genre, of course, the movie takes an interesting little take, of which, once again manages to pay off, giving the audience an interesting taste of the movies creativity, and style. Also, the plot has a nice tie in with most of the movies twists, and story executions, something of which means a big deal for audiences of which would like to become in depth with the film. Overall, this movie was charming, and fresh. It delivered many unique, simplistic details, as well as executions. The movie was great from start, to ending, successfully avoiding many clichés of which mostly upset horror genre fans. I'd recommend this to any horror fan looking for a solid, depth film that'll be sure to entertain!

• Promising but poor overall

  jozh902016-01-02

  From the opening narration to the twee overacting, it was hard to take any message on board from this film. It felt like the film betrayed itself and went out of its way to provide gratuitous violence. I'm not personally against violence in films but it seemed badly used. The characters became annoying caricatures as the film progressed and the protagonist was impossible to sympathise with far too early on. It seemed almost cartoon-ish in the worst possible way at the end. I understood the idea and thought it had genuine promise. It was let down by the fact that the film neither subscribed to being a horror, a comedy or a character study. Almost Mercy was stuck in a no man's land. It was attempting to be a dark comedy but achieving none of the depth and execution of a dark comedy. It was incredibly hard to like the main characters in any way despite being the 'weird' kid once upon a time. I felt almost insulted at times by the constant tropes, it seemed lazy and unoriginal. Which completely took away its value as a 'quirky' indie movie. The music was often clashing with the film itself. It annoyed me multiple times. Whether it was supposed to be jarringly juxtaposed, I don't know, but I felt that many songs were poor choices. As a positive, the female lead put in a decent performance and I could definitely see her advancing. The camera work was great and I liked a lot of the shots. I would not recommend this film, unfortunately.

• Feels like a 15 year old outcasts fan fiction of a High School massacre

  WhoThrewThatMonkey2015-08-30

  "Childhood friends grow up together as outcasts. A bridge is crossed and individually they both decide that the messed up town they grew up in needs to be purged" Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think this movie is horrible or anything but it did seem like it thought it was better than it actually was. Emily and Jackson grow up together in what actually does seem to be a messed up couple of lives. Jackson is the victim of molestation, physical bullying and unclean living environments. Emily lives in a pretty well off family but with a mother who is in a constant state of self medication, a father who is never there and a cast of should be mentors saying that she is underachieving and worth less than others. Trying to explain the story more than that seems like it would hurt myself and confuse everyone. So, let's go over some of the other character and why you should hate them. Pastor Johnson is a pedophile who is taking money from the church. The coach, at first seems like a cool dude until you realize he is a pedo also but targets high school girls instead of young boys. The principal is also a pedo but for high school boys plus he covers up a rape. Emily's dad is never there and drives his wife to feel she is inadequate. Then there are all of the class mates. You have urine boy, bullies, preps, jocks, popular girls, etc. Just every class of person that would make your inner nerd and outcast wish for them to get killed. And that's it! This movie is a glorified day dream of what bullied youth sometimes wish they could do when faced with bullies and troubled childhoods. Going to get into spoilers here but, it seems like Jackson is going to be the one to try to take revenge on everyone by plotting out a school shooting. He flakes out but gets caught for conspiracy of a mass murder rampage. Before he did so, he told Emily that he hid weapons in the woods. At this point, Emily goes gets the weapons and tracks down like 15 people and kills them. No joke! Pastor, Principal, 4 Students, Coach, another Student, her dad, her former teacher, several cops. It ends with her giving money extorted by the pastor to Jackson so he can just leave and live a normal life while she is in an institution. Stuff I didn't like are mainly the things like how they're seemingly trying to glorify and justify killings and school shootings. I 100% understand that some of the stuff that happened to them was horrible such as the molestation and rape. This is a good example of what those types of incidents can cause mentally and what they can lead to but the way the characters were portrayed and the happy go lucky feel the movie had was a turn off. What this movie boils down to is a revenge plot but when the revenge occurs, it feels out of place. Emily's character who has been the one down to earth the whole movie begins making light of what she is doing. Taking selfies with the people she kills and just outrageous behavior. If the tone was more serious during this part, it would've made for a possibly compelling revenge aspect but they went for a more campy dark comedy feel that didn't execute well at all. Should you watch it? Sure. It gives you an insight into some of the lives people have to live. It's not the worst two hours you can spend watching a movie. Just don't look for something too challenging. Better film making and a more serious tone near the end would have made for a decent film.

• I agree with those who say the movie betrayed itself

  bloopville2016-08-03

  What started out as an intelligent movie that might have had something to say about the deterioration of exurban America ended up being a juvenile rant. In order to have some sympathy for the actions of the protagonist her victims are portrayed as depraved hypocrites, but none of their actions forgive the infantile response of Emily. In fact, the only person who deserves more than humiliation is the pedophile priest. The two girls with the jerky jock kids are just innocent bystanders. What was their sin? Bad taste in dudes? Killing the relatively sweet but dumb coach was the act that lowered Emily to a level far below her victims. His "evil" was so banal as to be immaterial. There is no message here, only a childish temper tantrum.

• Absolute Garbage.

  solbro-328772015-08-08

  This is one of the most hateful movies I have ever seen, and exemplifies why people can't ever seem to meet in the middle on issues anymore. It is yet another 'artistic' movie in an overdone genre.."angry liberal kids hate everyone around them, and display their heroism by murdering everyone they disagree with". If there is a cliché about people with a conservative mindset, expect to see it here, amplified by 100. Any character that is of a conservative inclination, or what would otherwise be considered to be "successful", or "cool", should be expected to be portrayed in the most base, straw-man-argument-friendly caricature possible. The priest is the leader of a child porn ring and stealing money (of course *eye roll*..haven't seen THAT hateful portrayal before), another character they hate is of course a lover of boy porn, another is a grown man that can't wait for the chance to sleep with underage teens (one of which he's "been working on since she was 6" *another eye roll*). The teens they have deemed deserve to die, of course are all attractive (attractive people should all die!!) and spend their Saturday nights having orgies in a trailer. Oh yeah, and don't forget the guy who is wearing lady makeup and being smacked by a dominatrix when the "hero" comes in to serve justice to him. Have we covered every possible cliché of a character being depraved yet? I just want to know if film makers like this genuinely think they're being "deep". Must be easy to get your point across when you can propagandize those you disagree with in the most disgusting manners possible. This is yet another movie for "We hate what America is about. We don't fit in. We hate the idea of anyone succeeding over someone else. We hate religious people also. Why can't all of those things just roll over and die a bloody death, so we who smoke pot and want to be layabouts can go on being layabouts?" I don't imagine a movie heroizing someone who hates pot smokers/lazy people/outcasts and decides the only solution is to MURDER them / plot a school shooting would make it out of the cutting room. So how does such hateful, irresponsibly biased nonsense like THIS make it out? "We should burn this church down." That's nice. Don't agree with religion? Ah, let's burn them down, and put an ax in the priest later. "I'm having trouble in school." Well, guess a school shooting is a sympathetic choice then. Coach actually want you to participate in gym class? Ehhh, shoot him to death, he deserves to die. Oh no, we shouldn't see that as extreme at all, because remember, that coach is ALSO a sleezebag underage-kid-sleeper- with'er. See how we got you to sympathize with murdering that person now? (clever wink) In a time when school shootings are a frequent occurrence, let's make a movie that says "You know what? If life is tough, you are fully entitled to take everyone down with you in a hail of bullets." Why not? Don't bother trying to lift yourself up, just kill 'em. Don't even bother accepting "Eh, I'm a lil' weird, it is what it is" (something which personally I have done. I wasn't the cool kid, a lil quiet. I accepted it, and learned to embrace it)...no, don't do that. Kill the 'different ones'! This movie might as well have been written by a violently angry child with a pen. If you have political views, subtlety is an art...of which there was none in this movie. Crass, violent, and hateful of those of differing viewpoints / lifestyles, can sum up this irresponsible garbage. I'm so tired of "artists", spending more time building biased misrepresentative straw-men of the people they disagree with, than creating valid discussions that acknowledge there *gasp!*, might be an actual reason other people think differently.