Pod (2015)

Wow! Such a good movie.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Blistering performances.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

I appreciate that they are hiring the disabled, but when your cameraman is having constant seizures and the sound editor is completely out of his mind it can hurt the viewing experience. The lighting also felt a bit more fitted to a rave or a cheap haunted house than a suspense film, and a lot of the colors had a weird washed out effect. There was far too many fundamental problems for this movie to be salvaged, which is unfortunate because it seems like it could have been a fun film.

Most of the film is like a loud, bad soap opera with characters you couldn't possibly care about yelling at each other for reasons you couldn't possibly care about. Bad script, bad acting, bad direction. Don't waste your time.There was some oddly nice cinematography, suitable for a nature documentary. And the score was surprisingly good. It's a shame some genuinely eerie, dramatic music was wasted on people knocking on doors and windows, wandering aimlessly around, staring intensely into space, driving, walking, doing absolutely nothing of interest, ever.Written, produced, and directed by the same guy. It had to be, because if anyone with taste, talent, or even a light touch of sanity had been involved they'd've prevented this schlock from being made.

I can't believe this movie doesn't have a higher IMDb score. I found this movie to be engrossing, REALLY well-acted, and pretty darned scary. Obviously this is not a $200 million Hollywood blockbuster, but who needs constant special effects when much of the time the horror is in the dark and as terrifying as your imagination will permit? Is the brother facing an intervention from his siblings suffering from paranoia and mental illness, or is there really something in the basement? Or both? Kudos to the scriptwriter, the actors, the director and the cinematographer. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed, and you've earned the right to keep making movies. I know I'll be seeing you all again. Thanks for delivering a diamond in a sea of faux gems.

I never would have known about this independent horror film except that my friends recently reviewed it on their podcast, so I thought I'd watch it before I listened to the episode.Here are my thoughts (in 3 sections, the last of which includes spoilers).Pros:* very strong, if not exactly original, premise. Sick Gulf War vet with apparent schizophrenia and PTSD claims to have apprehended an alien "pod" which he recognizes from nefarious government experiments he witnessed during the service and which he now has sealed within his basement. His brother and sister come to check on him and are subjected to his rantings and ravings, which the sister believes and the brother does not. really nice source of dramatic tension* Reminiscent of a decent, if not great, episode of the X-Files, only focusing on the crazy victims and no Mulder and Scully present* Love that it relies on mood and setting and ambiguity to build suspense rather than action sequences or gore. The film managed to stir up a certain amount of dread during the best momentsCons:* Mediocre acting and straight-up stupid dialogue. If you're going to have a horror movie where terror is built through characterization and dialogue rather than on screen butchery, you better have some pretty strong writing. This script was disappointingly amateurish. The brother and sister's performances ranged from boring to passable, but the guy playing the crazy vet was a horrible actor and delivered his admittedly stupid lines poorly. Also, his costume and hairstyle looked EXACTLY like Travis Bickle from TAXI DRIVER. If only he had borrowed De Niro's acting abilities rather than his costume.* Overly intrusive and distracting score and sound effects. The filmmaker laid it on thick with the "scary" and "eerie" music and weird alien screeching sound effects coming from nowhere. I think the same music and noises would have been effective if used more sparingly, but the extent and volume at which they were played started to grow wearisome.**SPOILERS BELOW**RANDOM COMPLAINT: The movie poster clearly shows some kind of pod or alien egg a la ALIEN and the titular "pod" is mentioned on screen about 100 times, yet we are not allowed a glimpse of the pod at any time. Now I wouldn't normally complain about this. I think it would be bold and interesting if someone made a scary movie about Bigfoot that never actually SHOWED Bigfoot, but that's not what is happening here. In fact, in the final act of the movie we are allowed many unobscured glimpses at the monster that COMES OUT OF THE pod. It appears to be some sort of lumpy, spidery, humanoid resembling a cross between the classic "gray" and a zombie. It's only mildly scary. My feeling is if you're going to show the monster on screen, you might as well show the pod too. I really wanted to see the pod.CONCLUSION: Not a terrible movie, but I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it if I were you.