The Spore

source: The Spore

Well I read the reviews on this movie before I watched it and to be fair the low reviews are correct. But as always, I try to give a fair review of every movie based on budget, camerawork, acting , s-fx, music and more and I have to say, that for an amateur effort, Mr D. M. Cunningham seems to have done it all and he deserves a praise for it as he not only wrote, directed , produced this, he also did the sound editing and most of his family are in the cast list to save money so I can bet this cost less than £10,000 to produce. He also seems to be a fan of John Carpenter, as the music for the most part was actually quite reminiscent of the burble and warp of the old John Carpetner'esque era of analogue synth soundtracks, coupled with some rather professional photography / quadcopter shots and a well designed cover art for the movie it all boded so well... Unfortunately as other reviewers have pointed out, he should really have concentrated on the writing as it meanders from point to point aimlessly with no idea what it is, coupled with the bad acting, it fell a bit flat after the first promising 15 minutes. Sad, as the gore effects and s-fx were; for an ultra low budgeter, rather well done and I did like the radio broadcast fill-ins reminiscent of Dawn Of The Dead with a soupcon of Pontypool and it had vibes going on of Cabin Fever. With a bit more money and better writing and acting this nice little idea could have been so much more but as it is, I am afraid its a stretch at 3 hatchets on the horror scale out of 10 from me on this one!

The good: I watch a lot of cheaply made indy horror, and this movie is very professional in terms of cinematography and sound (granted, I watch with subtitles, but still). The use of little thematically linked vignettes was an interesting experimental touch, as was making the radio announcements a world-expanding expository extra "character". And I even liked the spore idea itself; the practical effects for it were (mostly) decent for such a low budget production. The bad: the dialogue is often stilted leading to it being delivered without any convincing emotion. The constant insistence people have on touching the infected borders on comical (that it's used to drive the "plot" of these vignettes is no excuse). The final form of the spore (you'll know it when you see it) was also rather comical, and unnecessary given the earlier (and more effective) mutations shown. Probably a case for "don't show the monster" arguments. All in all I don't regret watching this movie, and I'd like to see what the writer/director can do with some more growth, but I would just barely recommend it to someone.

Loved the concept & use of practical effects. Unfortunately that's where it ends. The editing, effects & cinematography are solid, but everything else was poorly executed. Script, dialogue, acting, directing, all very poor indeed. It's just one stupid character decision, & horror cliche, after another with a massive mound of awful acting on top. The synthesizer soundtrack doesn't do it any favors either. I really wanted to like this movie due to its overall concept, & I was drawn into the beginning moments, but it went downhill so quickly & never recovered. If you like practical effects & body horror then give it a go, but you've been warned.

The horror movie titled "The Spore" from writer and director D. M. Cunningham created a cult like masterpiece. I thought the movie was going to be a lower budget Indy style movie but I must admit that I found it to be a brilliantly thought out movie. I am not a horror flick fan but this movie was able to grab my attention. I mean, there does not need to be a lot of talking when it comes to how people would react to a virus. I like how there is not really a plot to solve the virus but rather short flicks of 10 people and how they were affected by the virus. I liked the inconsistency and chaos of the movie. It was something I did not have to think about. I like how the movie was fragmented. It just revolves around what the virus is doing and how it started and how people react rather than the normal start , middle , finish of predictable horror films. The flick did not really need to come together. I liked how it pulled apart . I liked how the movie stayed true to its geographic location and the camera angles used to capture hints and reminders of geographic location. I feel like its has a cult like following for fans that like the Blair Witch project but it has more talking and a little bit more beef. I think the movie embraces horror and realism without jamming it down our throats. I was easily able to sit through this movie and enjoyed the music in the credits. I did a little googling of the music and found the band "Head" was also a local band in which the movie was filmed . I believed most of what was happening would happen if the virus/ alien like creatures really existed. The gore was not glorified like most horror films but rather intensified throughout the film. I think my rating is justified because it was crafted perfectly rather then just falling into every run of the mill horror film. It's hard to compare it with other horror films for that reason I rate it a 10. I like when a film can stand out on its own.

I would have given the 1st half of this movie a good rating, slow burn build up, but then it just got boring in the second half. The fx were either pretty good or looked like tomato sauce on their head.

I see what they tried to do here. They tried to make a slow burn of a biological post-apocalyptic horror movie. Horrendous acting, stagnant pace, rubbery props, and senseless plot turn this movie into no more than ambient noise for an afternoon nap. There's no disease in the movie, for the movie itself is the disease. Listen to the bad reviews and don't waste your time or money like I did.

When we were young kids we liked to put our imagination in gear and come up with neat things to do! That was when we were in 5th or 6th grade. Later we realized that our ideas were generally immature as we got older. This movie had to be the brainchild of an imaginative child because it is not well-threaded nor very entertaining! Perhaps the producers of this mess should go back to basics and back to film school!

They make all the people inside the movie damn freaking stupid and dumb.. their dumbness scarier than the Spores. If you really have nothing to do and just want to kill time ok. If not, don't waste your time on this.

There are parts of the movie I want to hear but the music is too freaking loud. Why did they do this? Is this supposed to make the movie scarier? The beginning it was difficult to hear what exactly was going on because we were told by the radio but the mood music was just too high drowning out what was being said. I thought it was just the first but nope, it is well into the movie. I finally got frustrated and turned it off. They should re-release it with the audio adjusted. Seriously, WTF were they thinking?!?