Down a Dark Hall

"Down a Dark Hall" (2018, Rodrigo Cortés, Fickle Fish Films, Nostromo Pictures, Temple Hill Entertainment) is thriller-horror based on a teen novel by the same name.

Kit (AnnaSophia Robb) is a difficult teenager who gets in trouble often and does not get on with her parents. So they enrol her in a boarding school called Blackwood for 'gifted' students run by headmistress, Madame Duret (Uma Thurman). Kit and the other teens begin to feel that there is more to the winding halls of the school and soon discover that Blackwood Manor holds some secrets within its walls.

The film is very stylish with a lot of beautiful gothic scenes and some nice creep factor. The characters are fairly three-dimensional and enjoy a nice mix of flaws and charm. And, while it certainly has a teen-horror vibe and the scares are relatively limited, it delivers an entertaining package of weirdness.

The plot does get a little convoluted, however, overall I enjoyed this movie for its entertainment value. And that's what it's all about.

[Image: Fickle Fish Films, et al]

Hani

The 5th Wave

"The 5th Wave" (2016, J. Blakeson, GK Films, Material Pictures, Columbia Pictures) is an alien invasion movie.

Cassie (Chloë Grace Moretz) is an everyday teen girl growing up in America with a loving mother, father and little brother, Sammy (Zackary Arthur) but her life is turned upside down, along with everyone else's, when aliens known only as "The Others" invade Earth. Separated in the chaos, Cassie teams up with a stranger called Evan (Alex Roe) to try to reunite with her baby brother and save her crush from the alien invaders.

There's a lot more to it than that, but I don't want to give away any more plot points. I'm not a huge alien-invasion-movie kind of person. I enjoy an alien spoof and an old classic now and again and I of course enjoy Alien, Aliens, Predator, The Thing, et al.... I'm just not super into the whole post-apocalyptic alien invasion epic that seems to be the main stay these days. So perhaps I'm too biased against this sort of film to have enjoyed it. But, I didn't hate it. 

While Moretz provides a sympathetic, realistic and somewhat kickass lead character, the film itself somewhat falls flat with slow disinteresting scenes and some clunky reveals. The military action scenes felt a little too like watching someone play an Xbox first person shooter and the banter was a little bit forced. On the other hand, I haven't read the teen novel it's based off of and perhaps it's true to plot. 

Regardless, even when I was a teen I probably would have been a bit bored with this film by the end.

[image: GK films, et al]

Hani