Bethany (2017)

Simply A Masterpiece

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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

This was an interesting little gem of a horror film. The acting was great, it was decently edited, and overall I would say that it was a pretty well crafted flick. While I am sure that it was shot on a very low budget based on how many of the shots were tightly framed on actors this actually helped play into the psychological elements, as other reviewers pointed out, gave it a claustrophobic feeling. The low budget didn't seem too noticeable when it came to the visual effects as well. What practical effects were utilized were highly effective and actually made me squirm a few times, while its CG effects looked relatively seamless. While sort of a minor thing to point out I really did appreciate its effort in crafting the main characters, particularly Claire. I've watched many low/micro- budget horror films over the years and you'd be surprised at how many of them fail to even accomplish something as basic as this. My issues with the film lie largely in its structure and plotting. being a slow burn, one would expect it to unravel at a certain pace, but there were moments where the film dragged to an excruciating crawl, or without warning sped up way too rapidly, as well as scenes that would have been better placed much earlier in the film. I don't want to give any spoilers or dive too far into the plot because this is a film that works better the less you know going into it, but when its payoff was unveiled It didn't really work for me.The exposition was rushed out in an unnatural way, and logistically it didn't make too much sense. instead of resolving issues it just created more. Also the score was really bad in some parts. There is a scene that clearly lifts the main theme from Tony Scott's True Romance and makes a few minor tweaks to make it different enough but it completely took me out of the film for the entirety of that scene. I don't think a film should solely be judged by its ending which is why I would still recommend this. It has some truly effective scenes, and does work as a psychological horror film for the most part. Overall, I was impressed, this feels like a stepping stone towards something better, and I look forward to James Cullen Bressack's next effort.

As much as I love horror movies, then there was no reason for me not to sit down and watch "Bethany", especially since the synopsis for the movie did seem interesting.However, I didn't even get to the end of the movie, not even to the half of the movie. I gave up on "Bethany" after mere 35 minutes. Why? Well, because it was some very, very boring and long 35 minutes where nothing, absolutely nothing happened in the movie.I am not even sure if the movie would have picked up pace at some point after the 35 minutes, and I have no intentions of going back to find out.There was nothing appealing to the story, as director James Cullen Bressack managed to muster an incredible slow pace that utterly killed the atmosphere of the movie, and there was no tense build-ups of suspense or dread. Essentially, there was nothing aside from Zack Ward and Stefanie Estes sitting around in an old house trying to come to terms with something through means of slow paced dialogue.As for the acting, well I can't claim to be impressed with what I saw during the 35 minutes that I managed to endure. I am not familiar with Stefanie Estes, so I don't know how she usually performs. As for Zack Ward, well he wasn't really putting on what could be ranked among his top performances here.For a horror movie, then the only thing truly frightening about "Bethany" was how slow paced and how devoid of anything even remotely scary or frightening the movie turned out to be.If you enjoy a good horror movie, then "Bethany" is not a great pick.

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