OTHER HALVES *** U.S.A. 2015 Dir: Matthew T Price 90 mins
A new dating app is on the verge of completion and on the final night the group of programmer’s responsible get together to finalise and test their latest creation. Rather than finding your perfect partner though the app seems to have disastrous side effects that release your inner demons causing whoever logs on to do seemingly uncharacteristic things.
Described as a Horror/Comedy/Sci Fi movie this definitely tries at all 3 of these but doesn’t really nail any of them. I can see what they’re getting at as it does bare a few light similarities to the Scary Movie etc movies, I guess, in its humour but its no spoof and its not laugh a minute. There are various pokes at the stupid things people do in horror movies, an obligatory naked ladies talking about work whilst soaping themselves up in the shower scene and long drawn out shots of an unknown assailant stalking members of the group. The music is fairly typical and seems to be your generic teen pop punk tunes. All you would expect to see from your average slasher type teen flick really its all pretty standard except maybe for the acting which isn’t horrendous but questionable in places. Nothing great to speak of with the FX as nothing is really shown in great detail just various stabbings, a couple of flesh wounds, an eye trauma and a fair bit of blood but visually the practical FX don’t seem bad. The end credits are done quite cleverly as various chat room comments and contact lists which I thought was a cool idea. It’s a pretty good story and executed well enough, fans of these kind of movies may enjoy this more than I did. It is watchable but only just worthy of an acceptable 3 star rating in my opinion.
Review by Sarah Budd