Powerful

Masterful Movie

Crappy film

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

I have read almost all Stephen King's and loved it I have read almost all H.P Lovecraft and was creepy and awesome Well, I wasn't surprise that Hastur appears as 'the one who can calm the evil down' (that's why aunt Flo told George to name him in the first place) in "Gramma", put I always remember that Hastur was actually a benign god for shepherds according to Ambrose Bierce's short story (from which Lovecraft took the character for his Chtulu's Mythos, where we never know if it is an entity or a place). So, here I am reading "Gramma" and loved it because it was creepy and scary as hell: George's brother broke a leg, mom get him to hospital and George spend the night alone with her 'Gramma' who dies in the course of the night after a series of wicked events. With an unpredictable end. The story was an episode in The Twilight Zone (one of my favorite series) and I was happy to see that it was made a feature film! Wrong: we have a girl ghost that wasn't in the story, added "A la Victor Pascow", Aunt Flo turns to be aunt Jenny (why changed the name??)... and others stuff and elements that make the story go away from the source material. At the end of the movie, the wolf of the mountain was the real demon, who all what he want is that... take your own assumptions of the matter. I have take mines and that not save the movie to my eyes. The acting was good and loved Chandler Riggs did it good as George. Shirley Knight is awesome as always. Joel Courtney was great too. Cinematography was fine, and some effects are effective. But no. The script was not good, and maybe have the primary elements that "Gramma" have, but doesn't develop the same atmosphere. 6/10 and is because of the good actors did a good job with what they have. Watch it at your own risk.

If I had read the reviews on IMDb before watching the film, I probably would have expected much worse than what I got. It is not good enough for main screen release or for any Top 100 lists, but contrary to most of the reviews I have seen here, I actually did find the movie quite watchable - I have seen MUCH WORSE with much better ratings. The story runs at a steady pace and I never found myself distracted or watching the clock. I probably would not have been happy if I had to pay at a cinema to watch this, but as an online release, I was more than satisfied with the film's 1970's feel and subtle dramatic undertones. I can't really say that I ever felt scared as such, but though the film does play out like a horror version of a Hallmark Movie, it definitely did have a sinister creepy quality. In all, the production value was worthy of a straight to internet release. I did not expect more. I think a lot of bad reviews can be attributed that people expect much more and then feel disappointed that they did not get it. When such a short piece if prose gets adapted for screen, we can hardly expect The Shining. Maybe it helped that I did not read the short story before seeing the film. Maybe I just sometimes enjoy to watch something uncomplicated by weaves of b and c story lines. Be it what it may…I found this far more enjoyable than many other horror flicks that has made it into mainstream release.

I must start with this: I love horror movies! I prefer horror movies with demons, ghost, paranormal activities (and not talking to "Paranormal activity" – very bad movie) and etc. This is one of the reasons to watch "Mercy". The trailer of the movie lies. Yes, like most trailers those days, they show the most interesting 2 minutes of the movie. The story is very unoriginal and the movie looks very cheap. It's the typical old house, creepy book, and scary looking grandma movie. Nothing memorable, I would never recommend this film to anyone.Also, the 90% of the movie is so dark, that you can actually imagine your own storyline. Maybe it will be better than original.The other reason for choosing this movie is actually Dylan McDermott. I know him from American Horror Story and I really like him, but in this movie he acts like he doesn't really care about it. Maybe he doesn't really like the movie too. The worst thing in the whole movie is maybe the acting of Chandler Riggs, who plays George. I know him from Walking dead and he is very bad actor. I don't even know why this kid is an actor!? His acting in the movie is very falsely. He saw several dead bodies and never screams. He was acting like everything is okay, but hello there are dead people in front of you! He must learn to distinguish The Walking Dead comedy from serious movies. So the only thing that I really liked in the movie was the cute dog.

I'm not going to say that I sought this film out because I like the source material it was adapted from or because I'm a horror nut—I watched it because Carl Grimes was the lead and I wanted to see how Chandler Riggs handled being in a scary movie and wanted to see him in a product where people don't beat the heck out of the dead horse that is "Get in the house, Carl" jokes. And I have to say, he was good in it...too bad I didn't care for the film as a whole.The story in "Mercy" is decent and works for an average horror outing. The film also does a great job by not wasting any of its time with pointless or weak scare moments like having Riggs walking slowly towards a sound only to find a cat jump out of nowhere. Nope, instead, the film just unleashes hell during the final act and it works. The film also sets a good pace with unfolding and never drags itself down with needless exposition and back-story. Everything you need to know is informed when it feels right and moves along at a good pace. Even the acting is really good in the film and all the players did their roles perfectly.The only thing I didn't care for—and it ended up hurting the film a lot—was the fact the film gets too dark at points. I don't mean the film is too intense or hard to endure, I mean the film is too dark in the fact I couldn't see what was going on a lot of the time. When the movie hits its wild, supernatural-smothered climax and the demon is loose and doing its dark magic and threatening Chandler Rigg's character with death and torture, the movie has so much darkness and shadow to it that it was hard to see what was happening. Entire sequences would play out where I couldn't tell what Rigg's character was doing and it ended up hurting the end of the film bad—and the sad part is the ending was shaping up so nicely."Mercy" isn't terrible or hard to watch (well, it's hard to watch in the fact I couldn't see anything at parts) but awful lighting made the most exciting part of the film confusing and more distracting than anything. Everything about this film seems to be working but having your climax play out in mostly darkness and being almost impossible to see really ended up hurting the potential this film had.Hi! My name is Rev. Ron and if you would like to read more of my rants, ramblings, geek references, bad jokes, and other movie reviews (like a more in-depth look at "Mercy" and other movies that involve demons, grandmothers, and Carl Grimes) you can visit my blog at revronmovies.blogspot.com. If you don't want to do that because I said the "Get in the house, Carl" jokes are old and that makes you mad at me, you don't need to visit but understand that I still love the Coral Memes with Rick telling Carl bad jokes.