SomeoneMovie Review: Sympathy
June 19th 2009 05:41
Premise: A bank robber abducts a girl and hides out in a motel, with the intent of driving to an airport in Canada the following day. During the night, the bank robber and the girl are both themselves taken hostage by an escaped convict. As events unfold in the motel room, we begin to learn about each of the characters, and discover that no-one is what they seem.
In a nutshell: This movie is really a gem of low-budget cinema. It should be used as a 'how-to' guide for shooting on a tight (read: 0) budget. Apparently (according to imdb), the last 20 minutes of the movie was shot with only the director and 3 cast members present, with the off-camera crew members operating the boom mics and camera.... and it was shot in an unheated barn with temperatures ranging from 100 - 0 degrees. And yet, the movie does not suffer from it at all, with the quality you would expect from a much higher budget offering.
Sympathy is not your typical horror movie. In fact, I wouldn't even describe it as a horror at all, more a psychological thriller. The film is set entirely in the one motel room, and as I said only contains the three cast members.
First up, the acting was above-average for a movie of this budget. With no effects or props to distract the audience, the emphasis is placed solely on the 3 characters, who each carry the movie in their own way. My personal favourite was Aaron Boucher, who did an excellent job of playing the psychopathic escaped convict. Steven Pritchard was probably the weakest of the three as the bumbling bank robber, but still put in a convincing performance.
The script itself is quite entertaining, and even though there are no set changes the audience remains engaged. I'm trying not to give too much away here, so I'll remain vague... As I mentioned previously, no one is what they seem, and the twists and turns the plot follows are quite unpredictable, so I was pleasantly surprised. The final twists that occur at the climax are probably the strongest point of the movie, with the last 5 mins or so being quite fantastic.
Overall, definitely worth a look. I'm calling it great horror, simply for achieving such results with such a low budget. Although it doesn't hold it's own against Alien or The Thing, and isn't really a horror, still a great movie and a shining example of low-budget film-making.
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