Monday, January 30, 2017

The Chosen (2015)



Number Rolled: 28
Movie Name/Year: The Chosen (2015)
Tagline: The first kill is the hardest.
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Length: 88 minutes
Rating: NR
Production Companies: Terror Films
Producer: Max Benator, Joe Dain, Miles Fineburg, Marc Hustvedt, Jim Klock, Peter Schafer
Director: Ben Jehoshua
Writer: Barry Jay, Ben Jehoshua, Andrew J. Scheppmann
Actors: Kian Lawley, Elizabeth Keener, Angelica Chitwood, Chris Gann, Dayna Devon, Wiley B. Oscar, Mykayla Sohn, Casey James Knight, Emily Killian, Barbara Goodson, Melissa Navia, Johnny Alexander, Stefanie Estes, Lexi Flores, Brent Alan Henry, Harv Popick, Penelope Richards, Hannah Sohn
Stunt Doubles: Jordyn Wright

Languages
Speech Available: English
Subtitles Available: English, Chinese, French, German, Spanish

Blurb from Netflix: To save a young girl from a child-stealing demon, her mother and 19-year-old uncle must select six other blood relatives for a deadly sacrifice.


Selina’s Point of View:
From almost the very start of this film I absolutely hated all the characters. Every single one of them was obnoxious and I could not relate to a single one of them. It is very difficult to care about people dying if you don’t care about the people in general.

Most of the actors were fine. It wasn’t about bad acting at all… they just had nothing to work with.

The entire film was trope after trope after bullshit trope. The creators didn’t stray from it at all.

I can often enjoy a recipe film… but this was beyond that. The Chosen was one of the least creative movies I’ve ever seen or even considered. Even the reactions were boring and unrealistic. There were a couple of lines that made it seem like they were trying to create a campy cult film, but they failed miserably.

I’m just glad it’s not a film I’ll have to watch in the future.  


Cat’s Point of View:
I find myself with another movie that has me a little conflicted on my rating.

On the one hand, I don’t think I’ve seen a movie with this particular premise before. Points for creativity there, in my book. I think there was some potential there for something really cool.

I remember that the trailer gave me the impression of something really sinister and creepy. While there was horror in this movie, it wasn’t in the vein that I was expecting. That isn’t always a bad thing; but in this case it’s not necessarily a good thing either.

There wasn’t anything that I found really scary about this movie. It poked at some underlying feels for me in the case of the grandfather, played by Harv Popick (Short Cut to Hollywood, The Tear, The Final Song); but other than his situation triggering memories of my own grandfathers’ declines, there wasn’t anything that really moved me.

That’s a problem. I should have felt something.


Outside of the grandfather’s physical performance, the only other stand out performance here was Kian Lawley (Shovel Buddies, Boo! A Medea Halloween, Before I Fall) as Cameron. This was his debut film and there’s a little rawness there that should polish up as he gets more experience in the industry. Everyone else just felt a bit like they were phoning it in. Chris Gann (Leverage, Delirium, Saints & Sinners) wasn’t horrible, and he succeeded in earning my dislike for his character. It was just too little.

I think there was a missed opportunity here. It’s hard to know where things went sideways. Was it the writing, the overall vision, or did they just lack the funds to do the concept justice?

Whatever the reason was, I won’t be watching it again. Back in the days of video rental stores, I’d say go ahead and pick it up if the shelves were picked clean of what you really wanted. In this day and age, with Netflix and so many other options at your disposal, there’re too many good options to waste time on something that ultimately failed to hit the mark.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 31%

Netflix’s Prediction for Selina – 3/5
Selina’s Trust-the-Dice Score1/5

Netflix’s Prediction for Cat – 2/5
Cat’s Trust-the-Dice Score2/5

The Random Rating: PG-13.

Movie Trailer:

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