The Wake (2017)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This movie doesn't make one lick of sense. It makes for a frustrating watching experience.5 friends show up at a wake for a child they killed. They obviously fled the scene after running him over with their car. Why aren't they in jail, and why are they going to the wake (since none of them seem to care about the life they ended), and why doesn't the family question them about who the hell they are (the 3 family members are the only other attendees) since the kid was only 11 years old? But wait, now they all wake up, bound, in the house, and facing a masked killer. Who could it be, and what do they want? I say who cares. They're all horrible people (and actors) and deserve to die.

This is a terrible movie.*spoiler* The script is bad. It's a slasher turn demonic possession starring lifeless characters that can't put their brains together enough to escape a modern house. For example, her phone isn't charged at the beginning, but not once asked to charge it in the house. Then claims "sexist" when someone calls her out? Really? Then a guy says, there's probably no service here anyways- lazy writing.Acting is bad. The reactions are unrealistic. Guy gets stabbed and everyone stands around with hands over their mouths. WTF? The music is bad, the piano almost drowns out the dialog. The other choices are more distracting than actually adds atmosphere.The end/ reveal/ twist is dumb. You have an Asian Buddhist shrine thing going on in the house, but then goes to a Satanic basement at the end? Could have done the Christian / Catholic thing in the house and it would have worked somewhat for the end. It's confusing.It's just a bad movie. Sorry, I hate it.

THE WAKE is another familiar-looking slice of indie horror set in a single location. Five friends hook up to attend the wake of a local kid who died mysteriously. There's plenty of atmosphere building here but as you'd expect, very little in the way of actual content, at least until the climax. The plot is fairly predictable even though the actors do their best to sell it, but at least this is a little more convincing than most.

Reminds me of I Know What You Did Last Summer- from the drunken driving, to Freddie Prinze Jr.'s lookalike as the lead to a low-rent Jennifer Love Hewitt (big nose and boobies included), to the blonde Sarah Michelle Gellar doppleganger w/ her the handsome yet drunken (& possibly violent!) BF- this seems a little familiar. The acting is so terrible that I don't know whether or not to laugh (is this a horror-comedy?) or to just shake my head. To be fair though, I had thought the role of the killer was transparent before I pressed play yet I kept guessing throughout the film. Don't walk into this movie w/ high expectations... OH and I also kept wondering- where the hell is the mom's other kid and why isn't she more worried about her only living child????? We never find out about that little blonde girl. Why did they even include that scene in there?