Anomaly

ANOMALY is another vapid indie horror flick with little to recommend it to the discerning horror fan. Ostensibly about a case of supernatural possession, this is instead a talky drama in which the characters incessantly drone on and one until the running time is complete. It's clear that the director is hoping to make a film in the same vein as THE AMITYVILLE HORROR but his efforts are in vain with all of the phenomena talked about rather than shown due to budgetary constraints.

Terrible. Especially the young actors (Hunter Alexes Parker and Mason Parker) and the dad (Matt Holbrook). Lara Jean Mummert did pretty well, but she is too much of a stage and theater actor to work well on screen. In the actors' defense, the writing can take a lot of the blame for the disjointed and unnatural dialogue. No one says things like, "looking...right at myself." Or, "...without knowing the background of it." I know Batista was born in the DR but no one proofread the work at all to remove any rigidity or colloquial missteps.

Even if I don't like a movie. But. This is the dumbest movie I've seen in a while. The acting is laughable. The writing is laughable. I would have laughed throughout except I think it was meant to be taken seriously. It had the potential to be scary but fell so short because the writing and acting was horrible. It's a shame because I really think they meant to make a legitimately scary movie.

I understand this is a low budget film.. that being said independent films need to make up for money with originality and spirit. Cookie cutter plot and flat acting accumulating towards ...nothing. We continued watching out of sheer amazement. Movie date night has had some real doozies in the past but nothing so empty and sad as 'anomaly'. The cast looked downright bored during key moments. The director Succeeded in demonstrating he has never spoke with any law enforcement official or clergy member. The director wanted to play it safe. Regurgitate "The Exorcist" climax and make money. No vision required. If you have ever complained about Hollywood just making the same -old movies than you will not enjoy this train wreck.

This move was so bad I created an IMDb account to prevent others from Suffering as I have through it. It is quite obvious to me that the individuals who gave this flying turd Taco a 10/10 have either been paid to, or are direct relatives of the individuals in this film. There were many scenes where the sound didn't sync up to the action (think 70's dubbed kung fu), in addition to the horrendous editing which appeared to be done by a severely ADHD seven year old who hadn't had his daily dose of adderall. If that isn't alliterative enough for you, then try to imagine a demon possession movie where the main "scary" character is simply a man in a Walmart grim reaper hood with a 5 dollar face paint job. Seriously folks, my Niece can paint a better scary face, and she's only 8. Nothing original, a rehash of other horror movies all coalesced into one garbled, unimaginative piece of garbage. }:-\

Having seen the reviews, I wasn't optimistic. First the negatives: the son's lines and behaviour were of someone much younger. The dialogue sometimes sounded odd, like it was dubbed as an afterthought. The latter part was formulaic and the least believable and effective part was the interview/narration which bookended the story. The creature effects were mercifully kept short as they were clearly limited (it's good that this was recognised and understood) although the end shot succeeded as a clever misdirection. The positives: genuinely creepy in places. Surprisingly so given that the flaws would normally have me tuned out of any attempt at building an atmosphere. The soundtrack and sound effects, cinematography and production quality were above average for lower budget indie standards. The script was hit and miss but the acting was again above average, substantially so with Paige who went from homely domestic to yelling possessee and back again. And it was refreshing to not have models cast for every part. Overall and even with the flaws, I thought this punched above its weight which is a credit to everyone involved.

There's really no foothold to gain in order to redeem this film; none other than watching it for a laugh. Bad cinematography, bad editing, bad acting (the male character above all others) and what's more important, bad storytelling. The scenes with the priest were the ones where we laughed more hysterically: the one where the guy budges around as if he was annoyed by a mosquito rather than a demon takes the cake. (MEMO: bring insecticide rather than holy water next time.) Oh, don't forget to take a look at the fake 10 star reviews here on IMDb for an additional laugh.

I am not one to publicly trash something, but I don't want people to waste money or time that can be better spent elsewhere, so I am doing this kind of like a public service thing. I was 22 minutes in before I gave up. The first thing I noticed was poor acting, unbelievable characters, and just really bad dialogues. I kind of got that sense right away and the 2nd thing was the awful camera work and editing. The acting is so bad though, please forgive me should any of them read this, but good luck next time. There is really nothing positive I can say, at least about the first 22 minutes. Sorry guys.

Or whatever I paid on demand for this abomination. I actually feel embarrassed to have watched the whole thing. I feel like at some point my self respect should have kicked in and I should have turned it off in utter indignation. But honestly, I really wanted to find some value, after all asking for a refund is a huge drag. I assume the time frame is supposed to be sometime in the 70's, and I assume this only because of the way the woman was dressed and the fact that the kids are immature for their apparent ages. They spend the entire second half of the movie crying and hugging each other and they seem to be teenagers. I could've made a better movie. I could have rallied my extended family and come up with a better story line. There are two positives about this movie, the cover - cool pic - it sucked me in. And it was short. It is difficult to believe that such a clunker made it as far as this thing did.