Pernicious (2015)

Strong and Moving!

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Fresh and Exciting

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Just a tension-free torture porn excuse for scenes of torture. As morally bankrupt as a Wall Street trader in 2007.

The writers of most critical reviews of this film don't seem to realise a) that girls with a mental problem may not always shower naked, b) that actresses who play a certain type of girl will not necessarily be acting badly, and c) that blood and body parts will be fake or someone will investigate. What this film does do is make the characters, the effects and the storyline credible, and when you add in the accurate shooting (half of films made don't do this), and the way colours and contrasts are used, you have an intelligent and perfect or near perfect horrorfilm which can be enjoyed as many times as you want. The thing about good horror, and in particular good torture porn, is you have to get the blood colours right and this one does. Three American girls go to Thailand to teach children and become embroiled in local superstitions. That's it, but you will enjoy becoming engrossed in all the different parts of the plot if you just watch the movie with an open mind. People with closed minds hate horror they "think" is in any way sexualised. Thankfully for cinema, adults in democracies such as the U.S. and U.K. are allowed to choose their own entertainment, which is why Psycho exists.

This is one seriously engaging horror film! I have been guilty, even during some of the best films out there, hitting the "fast forward" button to get to the "good stuff" and skip past what I call "filler clips". You know, where John has a bagel with cream cheese and talks to the waitress about the meaning of life according to an insurance salesman. I'm like "can we please just KILL him already"! Can we look and see if there's a tiger in the bathroom...right NOW? Oh, look, there's a squirrel! Look at the clock...what time is it? Popcorn? It's very rare that I come across a film so captivating that I don't even care where the remote is because I'm completely sucked in. Lost in every moment. That was my experience with this film. It viciously grabbed me by the throat and glued me to the screen! An intoxicating nightmare I'll not soon forget!

There is a long scene in Thai without subtitles. Most of the scares are ripped almost entirely from the trailers of better horror movies. They failed to edit out the three seconds in which they accidentally played the wrong audio track. The fake blood runs off skin like water off a peach. This is pretty much the extent of special effects in this movie. The characters are obnoxious stereotypes of the American tourist. The twist is so poorly concealed, Stevie Wonder saw it coming and decided to read a book instead. The story has all the twists and turns as a taco bell burrito to your toilet. The characters are so poorly written that any enjoyment anyone can get is turning the movie off, a pleasure that for some reason I denied myself.This movie isn't good enough for Asylum.