Sinful (2006)

Excellent but underrated film

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Angry, unhinged, and unhappily married young Lilith (ably played with fierce and frightening intensity by Misty Mundae) desperately wants to have a baby. After her feckless husband Jim (a solid performance by Ronnie Kerr) fails to impregnate her, Lilth decides to steal the baby of her sweet and single pregnant neighbor Aisha (a fine and appealing portrayal by Erika Smith) by befriending her and waiting for the right time to take action. Writer/director Tony Marsiglia relates the morbidly absorbing story at a gradual pace, presents several genuinely icky and disturbing gory visuals, and does a bang-up job of creating and sustaining a creepy, unsettling, and uncomfortable atmosphere that becomes more increasingly uneasy and upsetting as the narrative unfolds towards a genuinely shocking downbeat ending. Mundae excels as the deeply troubled and deranged main character; her steady descent into madness and despair is sad, startling, and downright painful to behold. Moreover, the strong chemistry between Mundae and Smith keeps the picture humming throughout; they receive sturdy support from Kerr, Nikos Psarras as Aisha's suave boyfriend Sam, Deena-Wolfe Guerin as Lilith's fantasy daughter Daisy, John Castine as Lilith's slimy abusive stepfather, and Joe Gualiuzza as a friendly gynecologist. Dang Lenawae's sharp cinematography gives the movie an impressively spooky and stylish look. Nick Vasallo's elegantly brooding score likewise does the spine-tingling trick. A really offbeat and interesting film.

Sinful (2006) BOMB (out of 4) Extremely awful psychological thriller about a married woman (Misty Mundae) who slowly loses her mind because she isn't able to have children. She eventually meets her neighbor who is pregnant and plans on taking the unborn baby from her. There have been a few recent stories with deranged woman ripping babies out of other women and I'm sure this subject, while vile, could make for a good thriller or character study but this film certainly isn't it. This is an incredibly bad movie from start to finish but I'm not sure who would walk into this movie and expect anything else. Mundae is best known for her sexploitation roles and that's where she should have stuck because her performance her is really, really bad. Not once did I believe her as this deranged woman and now that I've seen a handful of her films it seems directors like to show she's "crazy" or "bad" by having her smoke a cigarette. I personally don't understand this childish connection but if that's the only way an actress or screenplay can show badness then you know you're in trouble. The film goes from reality to a fantasy world and it's hard to separate the two as both sequences look the exact same (overly dark). The supporting players are equally bad and there's no sense of direction anywhere. We get some rather gory moments with a fetus being ripped out and other dumb things but gorehounds won't find anything good here. The nudity is here but does nothing. The film runs 65-minutes but it's obvious the filmmakers ran out of ideas just by the extended opening and closing credits, which probably take over ten minutes. Just wait until you see the closing credits because of how slowly they move to push up the running time. I've seen thousands of movies but this is the first time I've seen this practice to push a running time.

This film really caught me by surprise. I guess I was expecting a cheesy horror flick from the looks of the DVD packaging. It's actually a very artful and compelling at times film. I have to give credit Nick Vasallo's music composition. Superb! Misty Mundane (Lilith) and Erica Smith's (iesha) performances were better than I could have ever expected. The material they had to work with is extremely demanding, and they pulled it off flawlessly! I respect Tony Marsiglia's overall vision for this film! He obviously has a very creative mind! I do have to say; however, that the imagery can be disturbing at times. Also, I didn't care for the performance by the actress that played Lilith's mother in the film. The overall look of the film was gorgeous though. The cinematography was breathtaking. There were quite a few continuity blips though. But nothing to REALLY take away from the story. I don't know if our society is quite ready for a film like this. I'm sure many people would find it disturbing or flat out bad, but I thought it was amusing and beautifully done.

I have to say my expectations were dashed badly with this film upon seeing it. Now while I always get a sly sense of entertainment from any Misty Mundae film, I have to admit that I held higher hopes for this movie having read reviews in magazines and seeing that it won two indy awards from a NJ film festival.I ran to the store and bought this film when it came out as it was touted as a more serious role for Mundae and while I find her films goofy and campy, I would love to see her break out into mainstream a little more. Well, while I hold hopes for this to happen someday, it won't happen with this particular director sadly.The story had potential, but there are entire sequences that beg the question: Is this *all* in her head or is she flipping between reality and fantasy? A good director could have you wondering right to the end, and with the right vehicle and inferences could even make you ponder it afterwards, but with this film, it just leaves you confused (at least that was how I felt as well as a number of friends that watched it with me).If you are into the trippy pseudo-reality genre, this might be the movie for you, for me, I just sat watching the end (won't ruin it for anyone) and scratching my head thinking: Did the end get clipped on the editing room floor? To me, this director seems to assume that everyone will just 'get it', and I can speak for the 6 people that watched it with me, we didn't get it. At all.Personally as a fan of Misty Mundae I'll keep it in my collection (I actually like the cover more than the film), but it won't be one I'll watch very often I'm sad to say.