Simply A Masterpiece

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

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

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This movie is extremely restrained, minimalistic, "slow-burning" as another reviewer puts it. It's in fact too restrained. Far too restrained. Ostensibly the movie is about some sinister ghostly going-ons in an ugly run-down flat in England. For the vast majority of the run time, we follow a lonely kid living in this run-down flat with his distant father. Late at night he hears odd thumpings and thudding sounds in the flat next to his. He suspects maybe it's someone stuck in there or something. His only friend and companion is a girl named Carmen, the only person around his age who s attention to him without bullying him. This eats up the majority of the playtime, and if you're interested in the characters, good for you. Unfortunately there's very little that is compelling about this story at all. The supernatural elements come in so sparingly that it seems almost goofily out of place in an otherwise straightforward, realistic film. It's restrained to such a degree that it becomes a distraction, sticking out hard from the rest of the film. Once we finally do get the plot to unfold, it's very late in the film, and the resolution is rushed along to such a degree that, being bored as I was by much of the first 2/3rds of the film, I missed something very quick and suddenly the last 10 minutes made very little sense to me. Looking at the other spoiler-filled reviews helped me to understand, but this movie left so little a mark on me that I just didn't care.

This movie was amazing! There's a lot you can do with an abandoned apartment complex, and making one of the apartments the site of a murder, and also of a haunting? The twist at the end was something I was not expecting! One of the best horror movies I've seen in recent years!

Young Tommy, played by Clem Tibber, must now live in squalor with his father (Shaun Dingwall) on an abandoned estate. When Tommy hears strange noises at night coming from the flat next door, his father is reluctant to believe his stories as the place has been sealed up for some time. Finding a new friend in Carmen, played by Elarica Gallacher, who works at the local cafe, he convinces her to help him solve this eerie mystery.Not since critically acclaimed The Babadook (2014), have I seen a horror that applies more depth into its makeup than your clichéd jump scares and things that go bump in the night. It's sad to watch the little pup being thrust into such a harsh environment, whilst being denied contact with his emotional constant, his mother. The father is of no comfort and makes no secret of what an imposition his son is. In vast contrast, new friend Carmen makes for a great companion as she gradually takes a shine to Tommy, despite having already been hardened by the life. She too has her own demons to battle it out with.The conditions alone that poor Tommy has to live in when the sun goes down verge on apocalyptic, with nothing but electric camping lanterns to help them see through the dark. The claustrophobia created by these box-sized bedrooms, shrinking corridors and tunnel- like stairwells is unnervingly palpable to say the least. The scenes in the creepy red room, the apparent source of the noises, are where the movie reaches its fever pitch, very much akin to the terrifying jail cell sequences in Anthony DiBlasi's Last Shift (2014).LAST WORDS: Another triumph for Metrodome, The Forgotten is easily their best horror release since last year's Halloween offering of Brit werewolf flick Howl (2015). It presents us with fully-fleshed sympathetic and complicated characters and a creeping atmosphere that claws at your throat with its dirty fingernails.

This is a really enjoyable slow-burning ghost story, which utilises elements I really like. An abandoned tower-block, familiar surroundings given a very sinister leaning, social decay, understated performances and no reliance on special effects. Instead, the story – a not totally original one, involving the spirit of a murderer inhabiting a derelict building – is leisurely paced, letting us into the lives, strengths and weaknesses of the characters before placing them into convincingly staged dark jeopardy.Elarica Johnson plays Carmen, initially hardened and distant; Clem Tibber plays Timmy, a sensitive loner living in a rough world; Shaun Dingwall plays his father Mark, forever up to no good; Lyndsey Marshal is Timmy's mum Sarah, who is either mad, or the sanest one of them all.One thing many of the players have in common is their incipient monosyllabic, basic communication, as if the act of speaking is a weakness that needs to be completed as quickly as possible. The jerky secrecy of their every brief conversation eventually gives way to a more comfortable discourse, as familiarity sets in – but with Timmy especially, it was difficult to tell if he is played by a stilted actor, or he's very convincingly playing a social inadequate (or rather an over-adequate in a world in which he does not fit in).Another factor in Timmy's shyness is his guilty talent – he is a proficient sketcher. His picture of Carmen, with whom he strikes a very poignant friendship, is used very well in the deliberately muddy finale. It is this 'muddiness' that helps make the story's resolution lift the film up beyond even its own impressive earlier stages. The frustration of not knowing – and the characters not knowing – what has happened to Carmen reminds us how sensitively the character is played, and the sadness outlives the horror. As Carmen mellows, Mark becomes darker, with dire consequences.Many of the events take place in near silence, with little more than the ever present low moan of night breeze echoing through the ruined corridors. This is a tremendous exercise in minimalism and intimacy, and works really well on both levels.