Daddy's Little Girl (2014) Reviews

• Don't believe the hype

  camjohnston862014-01-17

  I became aware of this movie from a facebook campaign that required those on the fan page to come on IMDb and write favourable reviews... in saying that, it appears most of the 10 STAR reviews are simply friends of the cast and crew. As an objective watcher I can tell you that the movie is worth watching, preferably with friends as the first hour is very very amusing. Firstly, the acting is laugh-out-loud cringe worthy; examples such as the facial expressions of some characters while talking on the phone or the 2 second pauses between character lines in dialogue made an episode of Home and Away look like "Schindler's List". Perhaps the two standouts were Billi Baker and Michael Thomson who did as best as they could in a world of awkward expositions and extras who are trying to edge their way in front of the lens as much as possible. In looking at the technical side of the film, the editing could've used a lot more attention to detail. Issues such as the audio quality which is very poor and had an overshadowing score and ambient noises muffling out the dialogue in many scenes made it difficult to focus on what was being said. Also the final montage in the end credits moves too quickly to be appreciated. The story itself is OK-ish but 2D characters, inexplicable outbursts, poor casting (the character of Derek's father looks the same age as Derek) story arcs that go no where (I mean what was with the cousin character??) and no real sense of the character's histories (it seems to be assumed knowledge for some reason) make it difficult for it to ever stand out next to other revenge genre flicks. To summarise, this (much like "The Room") is on par with a very good highschool film & TV assignment with a higher budget, which has clearly gone ENTIRELY towards the special effects (which I admit were fantastic!), in watching it you will be reminded through every forced facial expression and line of dialogue that you are watching people act and will never be really absorbed in what's going on... so grab some friends and a pizza, have a laugh at the start, a cringe at the end and then put on your real movie for the night 2 Stars out of 10 - but don't just take my word for it, wait till the proper reviews start coming out

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• a story about a little vigilante justice

  tdrish2015-06-22

  Sorry, did I say a little? This Australian horror movie delivers an emotional and disturbing punch, and that's putting it lightly. It spins a tale about a guy who finds out that his daughter had been kidnapped ( I told you to fix the window!) Things escalate when he gets the word that they have found his daughter. Unfortunately, they never said they found her alive. A sorry excuse for an investigation follows, which renders totally useless for months to come. Coming across a diary, the man learns a shocking discovery...he finds out who killed, and possibly molested, his daughter, and it has hit way too close to home. Finding out his own brother guilty, and finding out that he recorded other victims within his own diary, sends daddy into a frenzy, and he's taking matters into his own hands. None of it is pretty, none of it is for the squeamish or faint of heart. We're talking hardcore, barbaric, ruthless and emotionless pedophile torture. How much torture? I'd safely assume the last 50 minutes of the movie, almost nonstop torture, acts so bad they'd probably make Charles Manson cry, so you HAVE BEEN WARNED. Now, for the haters of this film, and their one or two star reviews, listen: They just don't see the point. The movie, from what I see, shares two characteristics in which I feel it is a movie that should have been made. Point 1...Hopefully, it serves as some sort of comfort to see a rapist clearly get what he deserves to anyone who has lost their child. Point 2...Hopefully, it serves as some sort of wake up call to anyone who has any intentions on harming a child. HARD CANDY got the same kind of bad reviews, probably for the same reason, they don't feel like scum like this deserves this kind of punishment. It will clearly be up to the viewer to decide for themselves who the monster really is. It's not a movie for everyone, and it's not a movie for those who are easily upset. I recommend, it could very well be the most anti-pedophile movie ever made.

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• A Poor Film

  sketchy_j2014-01-17

  I came across this film whilst filing through the 'Thriller' category in my Apple TV, searching for a well-constructed story that throws twists out every so often. AKA, a thriller. However, I was far off with such a choice. This movie from the beginning was let down by its actors. Each character, but in particular Derek (Michael Thomson) and his brother Tommy (Christian Radford) sounded as though they were simply speaking their lines straight off the script. Certain words that were incorporated in normal, everyday conversation between characters such as "Mate" were spoken flatly and held no depth behind it. The scene where the brothers are sitting on the beach and Derek is meaning to fire Tommy from his job seems fake, weakened by the actors' poor performances. And the scene really is an easy and relaxed segment which should not be ruined, and is through lack of effort, or so it seems. The film goes on to allow Derek's mind to become unhinged through pure hatred for his brother Tommy, to the point where Derek seeks advice on torture methods. He retrieves the information he wants by having colloquial conversations with the dentist and a few other people. This in itself is quite honestly pathetic and completely illogical that the audience is expected to believe that when put into practice by an amateur who has no knowledge of the human body or anything of the like, they would work. An enraged man conducting torture methods to attack the correct body part and keep the victim awake, alive, but still feel the pain, please. In addition to this, the film moves quite quickly through his search for information, which strips the film of its credibility and hardcore depth which I believe it aims to achieve. Another thing I'd like to touch on is: the fact that Derek acquires so much hatred for his brother after finding Tommy's diary to the point where he does not allow Tommy to explain himself whilst being tortured happened far too quickly, I believe. I do not think that torturing him was a clever twist, let alone depriving him of his ability to explain things. Finding the diary was too-weak a point of reference alone, and should have been accompanied by stronger evidence for Derek to launch into murderous, gruesome torture. Not to say that finding a second batch of evidence would have made for a justifiable answer to perform measured, well-thought-out torture on his brother. Finally, I am struggling to understand how this film is still standing with a solid IMDb rating of 7.4, and that there are reviews that praise the great acting and film work of Daddy's Little Girl. I can say without hesitation or second thoughts that it is one of the worst films I have ever seen, and I strongly recommend avoiding it.

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• Not very impressive, but worth watching.

  symbioticpsychotic2014-01-09

  There's major spoilers ahead so don't read this if you haven't seen the film. Revenge/avenger films are among my favourite types of films, The Horseman; I Spit on Your Grave et al, at the top of my list. After reading some reviews I was quite excited to get the DVD. I was kinda disappointed, so I'll start with the good. It looks *amazing*, it's wonderfully shot, there's some fantastic crane shots and the camera really adds character to the film. The score, again, awesome, adding another fantastic dimension (and, without trying to sound like a DVD review there's some great rear surround effects, especially during crowd scenes). The story, and the message contained within are also solid. The bad. Most reviews mention the acting with great praise. For the most part I felt the acting was pretty bad (with the exception of the gorgeous Billi Baker). It was one of those cases where I (and my girlfriend) could really feel each actor waiting to say their respective lines, as a result the dialogue felt forced and unnatural. Not all the time, but most. But I could deal with it because the story was so compelling. The thing that I had problems with mostly was the lack of realism in the police investigation and the torture scene/s. Firstly; No Forensic Evidence. This film wasn't set in 1980 so unless the kidnapper/murderer was Mandrake there would have been. As evidenced by his diary, the murderer did not plan these things, they were borne out of snap decisions. No Forensic Evidence would imply great care, planning and covering up, the exact opposite of which was implied in the film. Second; Computer & Diary. The murderer has a nanny cam in the bathroom which leads our protagonist to the murderers computer and an unlocked drawer that contains a diary that describes at great length the extent of his misdeeds. Would you leave something incriminating like that lying around? Let alone let someone use the computer right next to it? Seems unlikely. Next; Police Sketch. The only witness was an old man who saw "someone leaving the scene at 3am, in the dark, from a distance." When we finally see the sketch it looks *exactly* like the killer. Pretty good description for 3am, in the dark, from a distance. Also, the police have a sketch, they know who the killer is but they wait until the next day to act on it? Four; Cleanliness. The murderer, bolted down on a table for 6 days, did not urinate or defecate the entire time, I don't necessarily need to see that, but I don't need to see someones kneecap getting shattered either and if I do I'm pretty sure they aren't going to be holding it in. And speaking of cleanliness, Five; on the 5th day of torture the CID detective comes to visit Dad at the site of his vengeful torture. He hears the doorbell just after sawing into his victims arm, spewing blood everywhere, and goes straight upstairs to answer the door and is totally clean. The detective, despite sitting down with him for a period of time does not notice any type of odour emanating from him or his clothes, it's pretty implausible that a hardboiled violent crimes detective would not recognize the scent of blood, feces and burnt flesh. Equally implausible is the idea that there wouldn't be a smell at all. My biggest problem with the film was that I just didn't care enough about the characters. I didn't care enough about the protagonists situation so that I could feel exalted when he exacted his revenge, and there was so little characterisation that his actions were of no surprise when he found out who killed his daughter. There was so little characterisation of the antagonist, and so little indication of the full extent of his crimes that the only reason I was happy he was getting smashed around was cause he was just a general douchebag. The fact that I had very little emotional connection to the characters (and believe me I am not an unemotional person) stopped me from being able suspend my disbelief and allowed me to see the flaws in the film. Other than that I liked it.

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• Poor. Really, really poor.

  diado2014-01-20

  This film has 7.3 on IMDb at the time of writing, and seems to have mostly ten star reviews and few (honest) one or two star reviews. Make of that what you will. OK, on to the review. This movie is absolutely terrible. It's painful to watch, and not because of all the torture porn! The acting is wooden at best, full of awkward pauses and seemingly either completely emotionless in its delivery, or massively hammy. It feels like you're watching a school play. The camera and audio work adds to that feeling. Very low apertures are used throughout the film, I assume to attempt to give it some feeling of style, but consequently focus is often slightly off or at times completely missed. The subject is regularly not quite in frame, having the top of their heads out of shot, to the point that I wonder whether it was shot in a completely different aspect ratio and then (badly) cropped. Similarly the audio levels seem to be all over the place, with actors literally having to shout to signify important parts of the plot. With regards to the story itself, it seems to change pace a lot, to the point that it feels like the important parts were planned out, but the story then came in way below length and so huge amounts of slow-paced filler had to be added. There's a long set up, then a sudden progression which seems like it was meant to be jarring to the viewer, but just feels bodged because of the previous slow pace. Then it slows right down again until the next sudden progression, after which the pace is a little faster and more regular, but the story then seems somewhat incoherent and thrown together. Not to mention wholly unbelievable. Of course, then comes the torture porn. All in all this film is very much not worth wasting your time on, even if you approach it in the knowledge that it's a low budget slasher flick with appropriately low expectations.

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