Pernicious

source: Pernicious

Now this movie although a 'scary movie' is not very scary at all (at least for me, I've seen over 700 horror movies so I suppose I don't scare easily anymore but I don't think anyone is really gonna clench to their seats with this one). But it still kept my attention somewhat throughout the running-time which is a bit of an accomplishment at least, granted the pretty faces helped a lot with that and it's also visually fairly competently done... The scenery is nice and scenes of gore and blood are good fun, even though the jump-scares are less successful. The acting is... so so at best but yeah seen a lot worse when it comes to that as well. The music is a little overbearing at times, over-dramatic and loud. The script is, again I've seen movies with worse lol, but yeah nothing to spend your last money on and probably a movie that only holds up for a one time watch. And yeah I wouldn't call it "good" but it kept my attention somewhat so it's not all bad either, in the end I can only give it about 4 or possibly 4.5/10 though.

The idea was an good one. The execution was horrible. The women were totally unbelievable. The blonds equated teaching ESL as saving the world. This might have worked if they were playing ditsy blonds but they seemed to be playing slutty blonds. And it wasn't even the clothing giving this impression. It was the attitude and body language. The dialogue was poorly written and the acting was terrible. The brunette, the 'smart' one, seemed to be the ditsy one. Their interactions with the locals were painful to watch because they were so patronizing. Then they hit the bars and the acting and dialogue get even worse. I actually stopped watching before the movie got gory. It was just so bad that I couldn't continue watching.

The writers of most critical reviews of this film don't seem to realise a) that girls with a mental problem may not always shower naked, b) that actresses who play a certain type of girl will not necessarily be acting badly, and c) that blood and body parts will be fake or someone will investigate. What this film does do is make the characters, the effects and the storyline credible, and when you add in the accurate shooting (half of films made don't do this), and the way colours and contrasts are used, you have an intelligent and perfect or near perfect horrorfilm which can be enjoyed as many times as you want. The thing about good horror, and in particular good torture *, is you have to get the blood colours right and this one does. Three American girls go to Thailand to teach children and become embroiled in local superstitions. That's it, but you will enjoy becoming engrossed in all the different parts of the plot if you just watch the movie with an open mind. People with closed minds hate horror they "think" is in any way sexualised. Thankfully for cinema, adults in democracies such as the U.S. and U.K. are allowed to choose their own entertainment, which is why Psycho exists.

There is a long scene in Thai without subtitles. Most of the scares are ripped almost entirely from the trailers of better horror movies. They failed to edit out the three seconds in which they accidentally played the wrong audio track. The fake blood runs off skin like water off a peach. This is pretty much the extent of special effects in this movie. The characters are obnoxious stereotypes of the American tourist. The twist is so poorly concealed, Stevie Wonder saw it coming and decided to read a book instead. The story has all the twists and turns as a taco bell burrito to your toilet. The characters are so poorly written that any enjoyment anyone can get is turning the movie off, a pleasure that for some reason I denied myself. This movie isn't good enough for Asylum.

Usually when horror films involve clichés, they turn out bad. But dose that mean all of them that involve said clichés turn out bad? No. "Pernicious" begs to differ with there execution of clichés, and hidden potential not seen. The plot of the movie was quite intriguing for what it stood for, but the way this film executes the said plot seems to collide; clichés with potential. First off, in the movie you have a load of things you've seen in other horror movie plots. Many horror fans of which see loads of horror movies will realize that when watching this, seeing many elements of which have been seen thousands of times before. But when the movie offers many of it's execution ideas, things seem to be colliding all over the place. Potential kicks in when the movie executes some pleasant little surprises here, and there. The movie manages to give the audience some new, unique plot twists, as well as simple plot situations. Then, as said before, it also mixes in many clichés toward the plot of which we've all seen in many other horror films in the past. Overall, the entire storyline, and plot of this movie collides clichés, and potential. The potential being pleasant, likable, and unique ideas seen in few movies before. The clichés being situations of which the storyline / plot leads too; elements of which we've all seem before, only kicking off to being another part of execution. Just in a different movie. Clichés only continue, plaguing into the three main characters, as well as some other background characters seen through out this film. The three characters are just three characters we've seen billions of times before, nothing different. Our three characters have, pretty much shown us through out this entire film every single female character cliché in the book, execution little, to nothing different then what we've all already seen before. Some background characters share the same disappointment. Without spoiling anything, these background characters are pretty much like those other background / backup characters you've seen in your typical paranormal film. However, some said characters have some unique offerings, giving the audience some little relief from the constant clichés that has been thrown at us from the previous characters; shedding little light. In the end, some characters were worth it, but audiences have to put up with three some - what annoying clichéd main characters. Finally, for the entire execution of this film. The execution wasn't bad .. for displaying said clichéd elements above. It's execution, by tying everything together in this film wasn't bad. It has some grip toward what it was doing, while, of course tying in some of the pleasant surprises this film has to offer, from plot twists, to surprise execution, etc. It held a solid grasp through out, keeping that way until the very end, instead of falling apart into a complete mess; Thankfully, the audience don't have to witness a mess; a bullet successfully avoided. In conclusion. This film wasn't the worst thing in the world, but on the other hand it was close, and almost hit the oncoming bullet toward becoming complete garbage. The movie had some surprises here, and there, some relief of which the audience can enjoy. This film also has some enjoyable, unique elements of which the audience can notice, and happily gain relief. Once again, though, on the other hand this movie tried to pull off some so called "surprises" but fell flat, managing to be highly noticeable. Overall, this film wasn't that bad. It had some decent acting, some small surprises, as well as decent gore, and a solid, yet clichéd storyline. I wouldn't recommend this to those who can't stand clichés seen millions of times before, but for those looking for a small piece of entertainment, here you go.

This is one seriously engaging horror film! I have been guilty, even during some of the best films out there, hitting the "fast forward" button to get to the "good stuff" and skip past what I call "filler clips". You know, where John has a bagel with cream cheese and talks to the waitress about the meaning of life according to an insurance salesman. I'm like "can we please just KILL him already"! Can we look and see if there's a tiger in the bathroom...right NOW? Oh, look, there's a squirrel! Look at the clock...what time is it? Popcorn? It's very rare that I come across a film so captivating that I don't even care where the remote is because I'm completely sucked in. Lost in every moment. That was my experience with this film. It viciously grabbed me by the throat and glued me to the screen! An intoxicating nightmare I'll not soon forget!

What's creepier? A masked man chasing around a bunch of teens in the woods, making lots of noise and leaving no room for jump scares? Or a spooky little girl who wants to silently maim and kill everyone around her because she died? Pretty *-ed up..right? Whatever way you look at it and watch this movie, it will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time! It seems like every 5 minutes I am getting scared or grossed out by some sick twisted scene. If you like this kind of stuff, Well you're going to LOVE Pernicious. It's really gory and really creepy at the same time, leaving for a pleasurable balance of jump-scares, spine-chilling creepiness, and jaw-dropping gore! I loved it!

Three American girls travel to Thailand to teach English to the schoolchildren there. They are set up in a sweet house (but still manage to complain about it) and while they are exploring, they find a mysterious life-size golden statue of a little girl. Soon, our heroines are plagued by nightmares, the old man next door who keeps dropping in, a vanishing child, and more. Are the girls a victim of a vengeful spirit? I thought Pernicious was mildly entertaining but it has a lot of problems. First, the three lead actresses aren't great. Sometimes it seems like they're smirking at the script and other times they play it straight so it messes up the flow of the story. Speaking of the story, it's serviceable but completely predictable. You can tell where it's going from the first scene with the statue. Pernicious would be practically indistinguishable from a dozen or so other Asian ghost revenge flicks were it not for some truly excellent gore from ToeTag's Jerami Cruise. Fans of this subgenre aren't usually confronted with eye-gouging and tongue-ripping and the like, so the gore is kind of out of place but I liked it and it did liven things up a bit (that the actresses don't speak during the big set piece also helps). Still, it's odd that there's creepy scene setting, then BIG GORE SEQUENCE, then creepy exposition/jump scares, then HEY WE HIRED A GORE EFFECTS GUY SO LET'S HAVE SOME MORE NEAR THE END, then it ends. I can appreciate the filmmakers trying to do something different but I'm not sure how many people Pernicious will please. Ghost story fans probably won't appreciate the gore, and gorehounds will have a lot of time to kill between the good stuff.

Have you ever watched one of those movies that crossed taboo enough to pull you in, but not enough to scare you away? Well, Pernicious really fits the bill for this sort of movie. It has a simple plot that follows three college student girls who travel to Thailand to teach children. They find a golden statue in the home that they are staying in and then proceed to get haunted by the ghost of a vengeful little girl. That's when things get weird. Come to find out, children are being killed and dipped in gold to be worshiped and that's why the girl was killed. It had an air of originality to it and with really being filmed in Thailand, it had a pretty setting that most horror movies don't have. I loved it and I would recommend it to anyone who likes horror flicks!