I can't believe so few people have seen/rated this movie. Judging from the film's website they're still working on getting proper distribution. That is a shame, because fans of the genre deserve the chance to see this. I consider myself lucky enough to have seen this film, which is quite a rarity for me to say when it comes to horror-thrillers, especially low budget ones such as this.
I love horror/thrillers, but come out of almost all of them with general feelings of disappointment. Why? Because all I want is something a little bit original that scares me and is at least a little bit believable. Movies continually fall short on either one or, typically, all of these points. Instead of originality and thrills I get recycled bits of other horror movies, a couple spoonfuls of bad acting, and several buckets of corn-syrup blood. If the budget is low then acting gets worse and is then accompanied by campy effects, bad puns, and bad camera work, all of which eliminate any redeeming qualities of the film. I see this time and time again, and I am happy to say that's not what I saw with Killing Ariel. The fresh premise had me interested from the beginning, the acting - while not Oscar-worthy - is far better than most in this genre, (think Jack Nicholson in "The Shining"), and they didn't try to overcompensate a lack of genuine thrills with gallons of blood, although there was some gore. Also, not once did any of the characters do something that they wouldn't rationally do were they in a similar situation. That is to say there are no, "We're in danger...lets all split up!" moments in this film.
While not a perfect 10, the fact that it didn't suffer from the pitfalls that even "blockbuster" horror movies out there suffer from makes me tip my hat to all those involved. I can't even say that I was "pleasantly surprised" by this movie because I hold the same standards to all movies in this genre, regardless of their budget or status. It lived up to what I consider to be reasonable standards: originality, thrills, and believability. (A decent plot and acting helped as well).
Simply put, if you like horror/thriller, find a way to watch this movie. You won't regret it.
I love horror/thrillers, but come out of almost all of them with general feelings of disappointment. Why? Because all I want is something a little bit original that scares me and is at least a little bit believable. Movies continually fall short on either one or, typically, all of these points. Instead of originality and thrills I get recycled bits of other horror movies, a couple spoonfuls of bad acting, and several buckets of corn-syrup blood. If the budget is low then acting gets worse and is then accompanied by campy effects, bad puns, and bad camera work, all of which eliminate any redeeming qualities of the film. I see this time and time again, and I am happy to say that's not what I saw with Killing Ariel. The fresh premise had me interested from the beginning, the acting - while not Oscar-worthy - is far better than most in this genre, (think Jack Nicholson in "The Shining"), and they didn't try to overcompensate a lack of genuine thrills with gallons of blood, although there was some gore. Also, not once did any of the characters do something that they wouldn't rationally do were they in a similar situation. That is to say there are no, "We're in danger...lets all split up!" moments in this film.
While not a perfect 10, the fact that it didn't suffer from the pitfalls that even "blockbuster" horror movies out there suffer from makes me tip my hat to all those involved. I can't even say that I was "pleasantly surprised" by this movie because I hold the same standards to all movies in this genre, regardless of their budget or status. It lived up to what I consider to be reasonable standards: originality, thrills, and believability. (A decent plot and acting helped as well).
Simply put, if you like horror/thriller, find a way to watch this movie. You won't regret it.
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