Proxy

The horror part will be seen at one point and never to make an appearance again. It was an interesting ride, had some ups and lows, some almost mystery involved, in the end a so-so way to spend 2 hours. It may seem that it took too long but kinda focuses on 2 stories so it had a lot to cover. If you're a horror fan looking for a nice way to pass the night, this one right here is an almost thriller alone, so be careful what you do. It has that "May" style on it, goes the same direction just with a different execution that makes it so much more action/thriller than anything else. In rest what can I say, I kinda dig it, nice characters, some intense and surprising scenes, good acting, a story that wanted to be told the way it should be. At times it will even make you look away, cause it can be rough for some, and at others, well, kinda erotic to be honest. "Proxy" is a movie that will probably help some of the people involved in the making of it, to get the attention they seek. So I'm looking forward into seeing their new projects, if by any chance they stick to the horror part. I will recommend it and even tho I feel I should grade it 6/10, I'm only gonna give it a 5, cause some of you will come for the horror part and you will be mislead. I'm here to tell you, you won't find horror but a good story overall no doubt about it. Cheers!

Everything about this movie is awesome... Except for the movie. It's such a cool idea for a story! The flawed and deeply scarred characters who make up the movie are awesome. It boggles my mind how a director could take such rich material and fumble it as badly as mr. Parker did. Try as I might I cannot come up with any words that will adequately explain how frustrating this movie turned out. It's such an awesome movie the premise the characters everything about it is like epic or should've been! But the director manages to ruin every thing. Quite the opposite of King Midas I imagine that if you handed Zack Parker a pile of gold which is exactly what this movie was he will turn it into a steaming pile of poop.it's a bummer because this movie SHOULD be amazing

Opening with a shocking sequence, treading an interesting path during the first act, taking an unexpected turn in the middle, dragging from that point onwards and finally drowning in its own mess by the time it nears its conclusion, Proxy may seem like a violent, unflinching, gore-filled horror but in actuality is a dull & bloated psychological horror filled with wooden characters. The story of Proxy follows two women. First is Esther, a pregnant young lady who loses her child after being brutally attacked by an unidentified person while on her way home. Her road to recovery begins when she joins a support group where she meets & befriends Melanie, who claims that her husband & child died in a road accident. Things head for worse when Esther discovers Melanie's secret. Co-written, co-produced & directed by Zach Parker, Proxy opens on such a promising note that watching it fall flat after a while was all the more frustrating. The downslide starts when the director decides to shift the focus from one character to another and once that happens, everything after it feels absurd & mundane. Parker also fails to provide a gripping plot or a set of characters worth caring for, and it runs way too long. There isn't much to talk about its technical aspects for it didn't improve the experience by any means. There are a numerous poor decisions made here as far as camera-work, editing or background score goes. A pivotal scene is turned into an off-putting moment by its slow- mo photography that overstays its welcome & looks unintentionally funny. Editing is virtually absent in the second half. And the background score fails to blend with the narrative. On an overall scale, Proxy is a highly mediocre horror film that falls utterly short of whatever it was aspiring to be, features weak plotting & questionable character motives, and doesn't even revel in extremity for the R-rated elements are heavily toned down after the gruesome opening act. Neither the cast nor their input stand out here although the actress who plays Esther Woodhouse was slowly getting the hang of her character and I'd have loved to see more of that instead of what Proxy had in store for me. An absolute waste of time!

So im already 2hrs into this movie wigh 20mins left and I'm only finishing it because I came this far. They only positive thing I can say is good acting. Everything else just a waste of time. I love horror movies and was ready for a psychological thriller but this is boring me to DEATH!

This production is more than just a bit different, not sure what this could possibly be compared with. To suggest this deserves serious credit for an original concept in edgy psych thriller plot themes might be a bit of an understatement, though I will admit, shades of Mulholland Drive did come to mind. Even if edgy psych thrillers aren't your usual cup of tea, you might want to take a chance on this one. Far from being just a typical slash and gash nothing of a film, this one actually has a genuinely engaging plot, intelligently constructed and delivered through a series of existence vignettes which come together like an n-dimensional gig-saw puzzle. The challenge here is to describe what happens in this story, without stumbling across a possible spoiler threshold, so I'll keep fairly mum on specific plot details. A minimalist description would be a series of intersecting lives, wrapped around a particularly edgy violent scene at the start of the film, but this is not a gore filled series of crazy death scenes . . . though there will be some of that further into the plot. The important aspect here is that these scenes are not just gratuitously tossed in as punctuation plot points, but are genuinely integral to the composition of the story. That's not the point of the film. My take away on this was the bizarre but actually believable series of character studies of the people involved, and their own particular flavor of delusional fantasies that shape their chaotically unraveling lives, or what remains of them. The casting was superb, all of the main characters were spot on, but far and away, the real gem of this production is Kristina Klebe's portrayal of "Anika". A more perfect match for her hardened, knife edge sharp, tattooed persona could hardly be imagined. As for the creative construction and direction, this is by far Zack Parker's best work yet, at least in my opinion. Maybe it's a bit over the top for some, but I can go with a solid 8 on this one.

This movie nasty opening, with lady who heavy pregnant and his mugged by some person in hooded, who really wanted her unborn baby dead. Then Esther wakes up in the hospital and find out her unborn baby is dead, you might think you feel sorry for, As the moves goes learn, ( all the women in this movie are Messed up) As learn, start of the movie, was not want seemed. First hour is about Esther , who first feel sorry for until the curve and then she become friends with another women in group Melanie So Esther gets closer to her but is hurt by her lies, so she does something really unforgivable. There some slow parts in the movie, about hour into, I love the slow motion scene, . Melanie take centre stage of the next hour and lead to ending moment, which may surprise people. I enjoyed, until very last scene a abrupt ending However this really a horror movie, it felt more like very dark drama , with some blood moments here and there. 6/7 out of 10

"Proxy" gets off to a really gruesome start— a very pregnant Esther Woodhouse (Alexia Rasmussen) is knocked out in an alleyway and has her stomach beaten with a brick. Esther loses the baby, and afterward seems to lose her sanity— or did she ever really have any to begin with? I had the privilege of attending a midnight screening of "Proxy" at the Portland International Film Festival with the director in attendance. The film, as others have mentioned quite often, gets off to a really intriguing start. As Esther's character begins to unravel before our eyes, we begin to see that she's a bit more than a lonely pregnant woman. The same goes for Melanie (Alexa Havens), a friend whom she meets at a support group for women who have lost children. What begins as a psychological horror character study on these two women shifts gears about halfway through the film, and in doing so loses some of the intrigue that permeated the first half (largely due to Alexia Rasumussen's stellar performance as the awkward and perhaps sociopathic Esther). It begins to delve into the territory of social satire on the nature of sympathy and publicity, which is appropriate to the film's build-up to that point, but also leaves the rest of it to play out somewhat awkwardly in comparison. References to Hitchcock are well-deserved, as the film does have a Hitchcockian bent to it, though it lacks the cohesion of his films and at times is somewhat choppy, and at others, incomprehensibly disjointed. Overall, I had mixed feelings toward this film. I enjoyed the first half, but the shift the film makes midway through almost derails the entire thing. Beautifully shot no less, and the performances are truly great from relatively unknown actors. It's at times gruesome, mostly utterly mind boggling, but it's worth a watch, or maybe two. I feel like it demands a second viewing to try and tease out all of the intricacies at its core. 6/10.

PROXY (2013) *** Alexia Rasmussen, Alexa Havins, Joe Swanberg, Kristina Klebe. Deeply disturbing and twisted psychological thriller about a young pregnant woman (Rasmussen) whose brutal attack leads to the death of her unborn child and subsequent attempt at closure with a support group and gets more than she bargained for including a too-close-for-comfort attendee (Havins) with something dangerously secretive. Filmmaker Zack Parker (who co- scripted with Kevin Donner) allows enough rope to pull tautly and then yank the viewer into a head-spinning second act that makes you keep focused as things get progressively creepier (and deadlier). The aforementioned actresses - and Klebe as a rough and tumble lesbian with an axe to grind when loved ones disappoint (or get hurt) - give nimbly nuanced turns in a screw-tightening story that while it has a few WTF moments and one or two scenes that only stop the momentum of the unfolding sociopath(ies) at hand.

Talking to a family friend about my plans to view Horror films with an "epic" running time for the upcoming October Challenge on IMDb's Horror board,I got told about an excellent-sounding, 2 hour (!) Horror from the Mumblecore genre that he had recently picked up on DVD,which led to me getting ready to locate the proxy. The plot: Walking to the bus stop after having an ultrasound scan, Esther Woodhouse is attacked by a stranger,who knocks Woodhouse out,and kills her unborn child.Waking up in hospital,Woodhouse is told that she barely survived the attack,and that she has lost the unborn child.Trying to help Woodhouse out as much as possible,the hospital arranges Woodhouse to attend a therapy group designed to support women who have lost a child. Nervously sitting down for her first therapy meeting,Woodhouse begins talking to Melanie Michaels,who is attending the sessions after her husband and son had died in a car accident.Feeling that she is able to open up to Michaels the most in the group,Woodhouse (who apart from a lover has no friends or family) starts meeting up with Michaels outside of the group,for lunch and coffee.Walking round a department store one day,Woodhouse notices Michaels (who has not noticed Woodhouse) asking security to help her find her missing son.Secretly following Michaels,Woodhouse begins to fear that Michaels may not be all that she seems,when Michaels opens her car door,and her "dead" son walks out. View on the film: Keeping the The Newton Brothers expert score humming away in the background,co-writer/(along with Kevin Donner) director Zack Parker uses long,superbly held takes which allow the full unfolding horror to dig right under the viewers skin.Keeping away from featuring traditional tracking shots,Parker keeps the audience firmly connected to the characters by clearly using tracking shots aimed directly at the characters face,which allows for the horror across their faces to be fully displayed and splashed across the screen.Refusing to turn away from the most terrifying moments,Parker delicately gives each major set piece its own appearance,as Parker goes from scattering blood across the screen in an almost 3D manner,to using creaking floors and shoes to create the image of a traumatising act taking place. Opening the film with a vicious hit,the writers skilfully rip apart every perception that the viewer initially makes on the characters,with the writers pressing down on every small, peculiar moment that the characters express,and pushing them all right to the extremist edge.Along with the gradually revealed horror,the writers also slash the film with sharp Mumblecore conversations,which create a brilliant atmosphere,that suggests that something is deeply wrong. Entering the movie getting left on the floor for dead, Alexia Rasmussen gives a raw performance as Woodhouse,with Rasmussen showing Woodhouse's silent grief to turn into unrelenting rage,as she begins to uncover Michaels.Joined by a wonderfully brittle Joe Swanberg,the elegant Alexa Havins gives a fantastic performance which transforms from light & airy to ruthless and sharp-toothed,as Woodhouse begins to discover the proxy.

This review contains NO SPOILERS and I suggest you skip the reviews with spoilers until after you see the film. In my opinion this film is a gem in a sea of gravel. Although it could be more polished it nevertheless retains its value. The actors performances range from competent to stellar (Alexia Rasmussen was particularly impressive but everyone involved held their own and had their moments to shine) and this is in no small part due to good writing and direction. Cinematography is a similar affair ranging from adequate to mesmerizing. It is certainly a mixed bag but you'd be pressing pretty hard to go so far as to call any of it bad. I personally felt the score was superb and fit the tone of the scenes well. With the exception of a fairly brutal scene in the first act of the film there really isn't much violence or gore on screen here and what little of it there is was handled tastefully. Visually there is nothing here you won't have seen before. What makes it disturbing is the context, the emotional and psychological mayhem rippling through the characters affected and the cold distance maintained by those less/ unaffected around them. The behavior of the main characters may be extreme but they are the extremes of common conditions. This is where the film truly shines, as a study of the human condition when emotional needs are not satisfied, the common phenomenon of loneliness and isolation within a dense population and the resulting psychoses. The way empathy is handled in a clinical fashion by professionals and dished out superficially by peers when it suits their agenda, the way people within various relationships, genders (or rather, levels of masculinity or femininity within both genders) as well as how deserving a person may actually be of true empathy anyway are all bouncing off each other here and it's really engrossing to behold if this sort of thing interests you. I really don't want to spoil anything for any of the viewers for whom this film is intended so I hope it suffices to say that there are "twists" resulting from the nontraditional narrative structure that create an unpredictable thriller spliced with elements of drama/ horror. Every time I made an educated assumption of where things were headed the film surprised me and seemed to revel in doing so until the credits rolled. If you are the type of person who thinks a character in a film who happens to be of a certain gender or sexual orientation being portrayed as flawed is an accusation directed at everyone in that category or, more importantly, are enduring the loss of a loved one . . . viewer discretion is advised. I hope this film isn't lost in the horde of mediocre entries in the genre(s). From me this film scores a solid 8/10.