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I didn't care for this one much either, but I just wanted to give props to MrVengeance and Hotkakez for writing out actual reviews and not "THIS SUCKED!" or whatever. More folks like you two and this section will be something I visit more often.
This was a real letdown, they seem to have had a decent budget, but this movie went in too many different directions. Maybe worth watching once.
Posted By: MrDisgusting at 10:08pm, October 28, 2008
I enjoyed this movie, but I'd have to agree. The movie is just OK and has some quality moments. It's well directed, but it's slow and has some horrid moments such as the internet discovery sequence (man, I hate those). I'd watch again and recommend, but it's far from a 9 out of 10.
Posted By: MrVengeance at 9:53pm, October 28, 2008
The official BD review has me convinced the writer was working for the distributor or was a friend of the director. I believe the exact opposite of every point he stressed, though I give him credit for providing a more articulate and eloquent synopsis than the actual film ever delivers. What you'll get here is two acts of cheap supernatural scare attempts with amateurish fast-cut-flashbacks and an almost total lack of interesting exposition or character development. The last act lays out the plot and then attempts to tie it up neatly, though none of it is actually compelling.
Part of the problem is that premise isn't interesting in the first place. There's a guy in a house who poisons a killer guy, but keeps his spirit alive or something. I'm not really sure why he wanted to do this anyway. We learn the whole plot on a 100 year old YouTube video with a grammophone sound track. The chair itself is a total gimmick and has no relevance to the plot, serving only as an incredibly bland murder weapon. Certainly nothing worth naming your movie after, and definitely not a character in the way many set pieces are able to become.
So we've got a bland plot, terrible execution, 60 minutes of cheap supernatural vapidity, and 30 minutes of what honestly seems like an entirely different film and probably should've been, though it wouldn't have been a terribly good one. The problem with the movie is really that when things happen there's no real reason for them to, they are mostly just unmotivated things the writer thought would be creepy and didn't quite achieve even that.
The performances were bad to average, but this isn't really material you can sink your teeth into.
This is the kind of movie you'll get an hour into and wonder why the hell you're watching it, when something interesting is going to happen, and why the fuck that chair, which looks so cool on the cover, is so damn lame!
I wanted to enjoy this, but there's absolutely nothing remotely interesting here. It's a technically proficient but entirely vapid exercise with a horrible concept that no amount of talent can overcome.
i just finished watching this and i did not like this movie, i thought there was gonna more to it, the story was good but i didnt think they pulled through with the movie
The Chair was a very good film around the very end in some respects but most of the film is drudged along by multiple things. First, the main three characters do not seem to care most of the time nor are they very believable in getting what they want. The main character Michelle does a great job when she has become possessed but whenever she is being normal, you couldn't care less about her problems. The goals, or even the story for that matter, are never really set up straight and most of the film has you trying to catch exposition from clunky dialog which lasts a good while. The film quality, however, is impressive and the director does do a great job visually.
One of my major problems of the film was I just couldn't believe a lot of it. That's not saying I don't have a suspension of disbelief, it's just that the film doesn't make me want to care about the events that happen. It only really picks up steam near the end and even that falls on it's face in a few areas. One thing in particular that I couldn't wrap my head around was at a moment when the "good guys" are trying to save the day but seem that they can't go any further. At this moment, a character out of nowhere appears to save the day that is never expected simply because it's too absurd for them to be there in the first place. I don't want to give it away simply because it’s such a bizarre twist, no one can expect it. Be forewarned, it's not a good twist.
However, the end of the film is satisfactory and well done which is sometimes the make or break factor of a film. So, in short:
The Pros: Great cinematography, unique and creepy moments, and fair acting for what it was worth.
The Cons: Takes a good long while before things really pick up, there is little to no reasoning or even believability in many characters actions, and just because the actors look pretty doesn't make them good candidates in performing their roles.
I was excited to finally get my copy of The Chair, and watched it last night. The transition of the character, Danielle who is a student, into a killer who once lived in the same house she lived in at first seems interesting and has some unique twists...however, the actress playing "Danielle" lacked the fire and "spirit" (couldn't resist that one) to make this character come alive. Additionally, the 89 minute story seemed much, much longer than it, due to a lack of a more interesting plot, perhaps? I do not know. But I do know that this dvd is one that fell far short of its marketing.
THE HORROR HYPE METER Excited to see this movie? Rate it here!
