The Big Bad (2011)

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Frankie and Molly, two women with rage issues and non-healing wounds, meet at a bar and get to know each other over drinks and drugs. They eventually bond over the fact that they have both been bitten by a werewolf.Molly turns; Frankie deals with that. Then Frankie is kidnapped and taken to Annabelle, who rips out one of Frankie's eyes to replace one of hers. Frankie eventually counterattacks and gets away. She finds her stepfather, Fenton, and his alter ego.Will Frankie get free of the werewolves, or become part of the community? -----Scores-----Cinematography: 2/10 Framing, lighting, focus, depth of field, and continuity errors---all suck rocks. Throw in shaky camera.Sound: 4/10 Not very good. I needed the subtitles all too often.Acting: 0/10 Uniformly bad.Screenplay: 0/10 That opening was -8 points all by itself. The film's plot development was as murky and jerky as the camera work. None of the characters were interesting.---------- 1/10 is just too generous, but that is the lowest score on IMDb.

This movie was terrible. The director was horrible. The filming looked like it was done with a cell phone. The first hour or so was blurry and poorly lit. The casting was bad. There were plenty of scenes in this movie that should have just been deleted. In one segment it took the girl like 5 minutes to stumble out of a bar. I normally don't care about poor effects but it is worth noting that the werewolf looks pretty bad. We spent the first half of this movie waiting for it to start, then we spent the second half of it wishing it would just end. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy plenty of low budget movies but this one was just painful! Don't waste your $1.20 at Redbox. You will probably regret it.

Plot: Frankie goes to a bar in search for a man responsible for the death of her family, but can't seem to find anyone with a connection to him. After a meeting with a woman who seems to share a few things with Frankie's past, Frankie is soon thrown into something that turns her quest for revenge into something much worse. A place where she will be eye to eye with a beast, and has to fight for her survival.Our thoughts: If you know me, you know I love werewolf movies. I mean, the good ones. And not just the graphic stuff, but generally the idea of werewolves is damn creepy. I first got interested in "The Big Bad" for this reason, but I also knew that this wouldn't really be a werewolf horror movie as much as a mystery. That usually means a lack of werewolves, and that was the case with this one. There's nothing wrong with that at all, just figured I'd throw that out there for anyone who might be in a similar position as me."The Big Bad" is the name of a bar where our lead, Frankie, goes to find answers about a beast that killed her family. She's looking for a man, but no one seems to be able to help her. That is, until she meets a woman in the ladies' room. The two hit off and start talking about their past, and soon it appears that she knows a thing or two about the man Frankie is after. But after saying the wrong thing, the woman grows teeth and attacks Frankie. This is just the beginning of a spiral into very dark places, and Frankie finds herself in a battle of blood between the surreal and reality.What I absolutely loved about this movie was that it so successfully made the whole werewolf thing mysterious. After having watch a number of werewolf movies, it's hard for filmmakers to make it a successful mystery. While we might know where it was heading eventually, it took some really interesting turns to get there. The first third of the movie, if not more, is spent in the bar where we slowly puzzle together what Frankie and her new friend are all about, as well as how the werewolf mythos is implemented in the movie. It takes its time, and it's much needed. It never gets boring because it sways between drama, horror and even comedy. Not straight-out comedy, but there are several moments that show a darker comedy - many of them through comments or reactions by Frankie. And one scene that feels a bit "Evil Dead 2"-ish - let's just say it has to do with getting stuff on you... and a whole lot of stuff, at that. I can't say whether that helps the movie or not in the long run, but it makes the slower parts a lot more interesting.After the bar scene, it quickly moves to crime/cult/horror territory and this is my biggest issue with the movie. It takes time with the first part, which is great. The third part is slightly shorter but just enough for us to get an entertaining finale. The middle part, however, goes way too fast. It seems like it is missing a few steps in the dramaturgy here, and just goes from A directly to C (or with a lower-case "b" in the middle). While we might understand what happens still, we're not there emotionally. What started as the beginning of an epic search for Frankie is soon cut short. This was definitely the main flaw of the movie. After that, however, I think we have a solid horror movie going on. It's atmospheric and has plenty of action without ever leaving the roots of mystery behind: we rarely know exactly what's up. Had the middle part been slightly longer and fully developed then I am sure it would've made the ending even better."The Big Bad" is a good horror mystery that could've been a lot more. I still recommend it, though, and especially to fans of werewolf movies. While it's not the most typical werewolf movie, it carries some of the most important things successfully: it's mysterious, it's atmospheric and the werewolf looks believable. Of course, I am always a bigger fan of werewolves that look more like wolves and less like "The Wolf Man", but that's rarely a problem as much as a preference. The werewolves here are of the old kind, and if you expect that then there's nothing to be annoyed by. It's an interesting movie with a solid production, some interesting visual ideas and most of the time very good acting, so check it out if you want a little semi-surreal and dreamlike werewolf mystery!More reviews at FilmBizarro.com

Well as it is just released on Video On Demand (VOD) The Big Bad shows that there is a lot possible with a very small budget. The end product is a stylish movie that knows where it is going. Should have been hard for Jesse Gotta to write and play the main role in orderly fashion? Or did she proof us that double roles won't be of any influence in making a good movie? Frankie Ducane is a woman in a seedy bar at a bad part of town, looking for a man named Fenton Bailey. A chance encounter with barfly Molly tells her she's on the right track. Molly had run into Fenton not too long ago and come away with a cut on her neck and an itch that wouldn't go away. When Frankie leans in and tells Molly what that itch is, the wounded woman goes to the bathroom and tries to slit her wrist. The suicide attempt fails, and after Frankie has buried Molly's body in a shallow grave, things get much worse. A trail of blood is left in her path as she fights every step of the way on the road to Fenton Bailey. And when she finds him, Frankie discovers those feelings that had driven her forward weren't fueled so much by anger as they were grief. "I just miss you both so much," she tells Fenton before . . . well, I'm not going to tell. Suffice it to say the ending is somewhat bittersweet.One of the first things you will notice as a viewer is the great surrealism in this movie. The tone of the movie is a very dark one but with a bit of fantasy touché to it. Jesse Gotta and Bryan Enk have set up a very nice story and which has been captured and directed in a great way. The Big Bad didn't had a big budget but the movie never feels like a low budget movie thanks to the stylistic way of the movie. The movie shows the love that has been put into it and embraces the fairy-tale related parts into a dark murderous ride. Jesse Gotta wrote the script and plays the main role in the movie she makes sure the character she plays shows the emotion so needs to show and never as character feels empty. But The Big Bad isn't without its flaws a lot of action shots have been shot with a handycam which means shaky and muddled scenes. There could have been a lot more and better ways to capture the images but in the end it is a budget choice. While Gotta did great as a writer some of the dialogue is just not worth the time and just feels empty. The monologues were just going on too long but never in a way it is annoying but in a way that you as viewer start to question things too much. The effects in the movie are well made and are never to gory and is walking a safe line in this one. Too much gore wouldn't have fit in the dreamy state of the movie and I am glad they didn't overdo it. The Big Bad ended up as a surprise for me and after seeing a lot of movies lately with a lot higher budget fail miserably this was a nice breath of fresh air. Keep on the lookout for Gotta and Enk they have everything set up great and let's hope their new movie will have a higher budget. But with the budget they had they made this movie into a success in my book, the makeup, editing, the story and the sound just fits everything perfectly. I would say go check it out it is worth the watch. http://www.slashingthrough.com/reviews.php?id=160