Bethany (2017) Reviews

• Bethany: Truly dire

  Platypuschow2017-10-03

  Starring and co-written by the underrated Zack Ward alongside Shannen Doherty and alarmingly Tom Green in a straight role this horror misfires on all cylinders. Standard mish mash of common horror tropes, unoriginal storyline and unforgivable boredom Bethany is an utter mess. It's one saving grace is it's ending (No pun intended) the twist and finale is actually quite clever but they even balls that up. Do not be deceived by the haunting cover, you will not find scares here in fact you'll barely find anything at all. The Good: The twist is decent The Bad: Boring as hell Everything is executed poorly Things I Learnt From This Movie: Shannen Doherty clearly p*ssed off Hollywood for it to come to this Tom Green without his usual wacky shenanigans is really bland

• Tedious movie

  lynnbarr-721282017-04-12

  I read the reviews for this movie and i thought i was in for a treat, how wrong i was. Stefanie Estes the lead actress, who played the role of Claire give a mind-numbing performance, i realize she was portraying a troubled character,she was brought up by an abusive mother and returned to the house of her childhood after her mother died only to be plagued by strange occurrences. The relationship between her and her husband played by Zack Ward just didn't gel, i did not feel any romantic motions between them.The story of the twin haunting the living sibling has been done before and a lot better than this movie, there is a few creepy moments but overall i would not recommend this movie

• dear god

  annaleigh-113522018-06-20

  Please please please DO NOT watch this movie. i don't think i will ever recover. first of all, it took the ENTIRE movie to get to the action. all it was was her "visions" for the first hour, and the last 15 minutes or so was actually action. and the action wasn't even all that great. there was absolutely no chemistry between any of the characters, and half of the subplots made no sense and no contribution to the movie. also, the ending....DISTURBING. that horrific scene (if you've watched it you'll know which one i'm talking about) absolutely did not need to go on for that long. it was awful. all and all it was a really boring movie that made no sense and i wouldn't even have finished if i didn't know there was an unexpected "twist". please. save your time and spare yourself.

• Lacks focus

  richardadesmond2018-05-27

  I've seen interviews with the writer/director and my hat is ff to him. He seems like very mature and passionate filmmaker who appreciates constructive criticism brought to his work. My respect to you sir! I thought the camera work and lighting had some nice touches, creative and moody. The film didn't get sucked into the ocean of other films with jump scares every 2 minutes. This film went the creative route, though the "child living in the walls" thing and whispering off screen is a tad cliche. This film needlessly bogs itself down in complexity, where I honestly didn't know what the threat was. The film was busy spinning many plates; the memories of her abusive mother, this bethany person who haunts her, the strange visions she keeps having, her self inflicted paranoid injuries. I kept saying to the screen in front of me "make up your mind, film. Choose one!" Its trying to go in too many directions, it ended up that none of them provided a scare factor, I was just confused the whole time rather than frightened....BUT, having said that, by the end of the 3rd act I had all the necessary information that should of been setup in the first act, built in the second and payed off in the 3rd. In the film the payoff is the setup, thus all the confusion. For me the film kicked into gear about an hour or so into the film, when her husband believes his wife and the presence of Bethany. Though this script needed obvious work, I'm aware from interviews with the director that he is given insane deadlines to write a feature film before principle photography begins, so this could be the case here. The plot points in the third act where we learn what happened to her twin sister, how she was tortured and abandoned....thats the setup to the film aka the first act, what is this doing in the 3rd act?? Its not some big reveal, as I mentioned its essential context that could be used to set the stakes and provide some depth to the character and organic motivation for her moving home again, because there really isn't one here. And a final question, Tom Green playing a psychiatrist?:)....really?

• What a boring rip off of another crap movie.

  hnhnyc2017-10-28

  Boring, boring, boring, predictable, boring, and then, literally down to the mask and the kid hiding in the walls because the mother is ashamed of it, a complete copycat ending of 'The Boy', another one of the biggest failures in the history of horror movies. I'm surprised there's no lawsuit happening from one crappy writer to another. Who knows. Maybe there is. I bet that deposition would be more entertaining than this was. Skip it.