Directed by: Adam Berardi Written by: Adam Berardi & Clay Moffatt Genre: Horror / Thriller |
Almost Alone
Lexi (Nicolette Sciortino) has agreed to babysit for an evening at her uncles house. Their baby was sick and the couple just need a few hours out of the house. Lexi settles in for a quiet evening of scary movies all alone in the out of the way house. After freaking herself out with the scary television film, Lexi agrees to let a friend coma and keep her company. Even though it's against the rules, there's no real harm. Just a couple girls eating popcorn and watching TV. As Lexi goes to get the popcorn from the kitchen she returns and her life changes. Her friend is dead and in the room with her, is a masked killer. Lexi must fight or die both for her and the baby's sake. Or something like that.
Almost Alone is your typical slasher thriller. All the tropes are accounted for. Being alone in a deserted house. A creepy mask and a butcher knife wielding maniac. But don't expect anything even remotely like the Purge movies. Or even Jason from the Friday the 13th franchise. Adam Berardi's slasher is like a micro budget cousin to these monster hits. I can only say that it seems as if Berardi has tried to get in all the creeps and soundscapes, without much attention to details. It's not a complete write-off as a film, not even close. I just can't help but wonder what could have been. The murderer himself has a name tag identifying him as Cletus. We never find out who is under the mask or what his reasons are for wanting everyone dead. His character I can only assume is based on Jason or maybe Michael Myers. Probably more Michael Myers only Cletus has nothing else backing him. He moves in the stupid kind of way Michael or Jason might, but without a backstory. Jason was handicapped and Michael was crazy. This explained how and why they acted the way they did. Nothing here. A scene where Cletus stands in one spot, pondering Lexi's shirt in slow motion really had me wondering. Maybe he is handicapped? But if he is, and he is slow, why isn't he slow later on? The acting is also kind of strange. Unrealistic would fit better. I don't want to go into pages of why, but something just feels off about the entire thing. The best acting in the movie is at the start, coming from Lexi's aunt and uncle. This title is also edited in a unusual way containing numerous shots that just had me wondering why? Near the end Lexi gets strangled almost to death and we get a cut to a record player playing a creepy kids song. Fade to black and then back into Lexi again. The reason? Beats me. On the good stuff topic we have some well done scares, some good gore effects, and good atmosphere building. It all adds up to making Almost Alone quite watchable. Although it relies on jump scares there's nothing to really complain about. Lots of movies use jump scares. They are effective. Almost Alone falls into the not bad to watch; but may not remember it tomorrow category and one thing is true. Still much better than some of the studio crap I've seen released lately. Favorite parts? The dream sequences. They added some character and uniqueness to a overdone genre. |
