ghasapidis

24 May 2012

Nightmarish, Surreal, Disturbing, and Effective

I found YellowBrickRoad to be deeply unsettling, like a nightmare thattugged at something deep inside me. This is definitely a slow, mostlysubtle horror film, and not for everyone, but I found it better thanmost that I've seen. This was a surreal, disturbing experience thattook a group of ordinary people in a pretty ordinary setting andsituation, and gradually morphed it into an anxious world withoutreliable reference frame in which we're not sure what is real. If Ilike a movie, and I did like this one, I tend to strongly empathizewith the characters and their situation, and I found myself feeling theanxiety of questioning reality and my own grasp of it. Shortly afterwatching the film I went to sleep and proceeded to have what seemedlike hours of dream obviously derived from the movie.Comparable films are "The Blair Witch Project" (the original one--forobvious reasons when you see this one) and "Session 9" for the slow,character-driven build and growing sense of dread.Yes, there was one plot detail which strained credibility, was a littledistracting, and I think could've been easily avoided, but I waswilling to overlook that given that otherwise the overall experienceworked for me. Regarding the ending, I know many posting here found itunsatisfying. I feel strongly about endings and usually like them to beclear and unambiguous, and I liked the ending of this film. Having saidthat, I understand why some would not like the ending, but it madesense to me and sealed the horror of the story.

Lex Fulgore

23 May 2012

Original, well-acted and honestly...it scared the crap out of me.

This coming from a jaded old horror hound like myself is saying alot...this movie scared the crap out of me for the sound alone.The sound design in this movie was superb - many of the moments wherethe characters were being tortured with the discordance I too feltdistinctly and even rather deeply uncomfortable by the audio which issurprising to me but fact.A gorgeous breath of fresh air amidst a sea of stock "generic,unlikeable teens go to location, romp and get killed in various, bloodyways" films.Solid acting, excellent pacing and tension, all-in-all a grand-slam forme. Highly recommended.Now I am left actually feeling jarred by the sounds I heard... thinkI'll go listen to some Boards of Canada or something.

davenacrelli

23 May 2012

Not a Fan

First let me say, I didn't watch this movie in a theater -and I'm gladI didn't waste my money doing so. I'm not sure what the writers werethinking, but I can tell you what the viewers were thinking...BORING.There was no set up for this movie, so for me the characters neverreally developed fully. The plot was weak and the ending was one of theworst endings I think I have ever seen in a movie. Unless you are a fanof slasher movies (which I am not), horror movies are hard to getaudience buy-in and this one had me bored and confused within the first5 minutes. I bit the bullet and watched it until the end. Wished I hadfollowed my first instinct and just turned it off when the story linebroke down - around minute 6. Do yourself a favor and stay off theYellow Brick Road.

22 May 2012

Kind of pointless with inconsistent audio

This review is from: YellowBrickRoad (Amazon Instant Video) First, the technical part: streaming this movie on a roku was frustrating. The audio wasn't properly converted into a digital format. The background noise overtook the dialog and I found myself turning it up to try and hear the actors speaking and then turning it down when the music kicked in. Very frustrating viewing experience. If you're watching it on a roku, buyer beware.As for the movie itself, perhaps I missed something due to the audio but it struck me as a movie trying very hard to be intellectual without actually having a point. They eluded to a lot, hinted at something greater coming towards the end and I stuck with it hoping for an end that would justify the intensely slow pacing. When the credits rolled, I felt cheated. It kind of strikes me as a movie that wrapped it up quickly when the writer ran out of ideas. There was nothing proposed to justify the madness. It just kind of all fell flat. Very disappointing. But again, maybe I missed something because of the audio. I really can't recommend this. The cast, acting and filming was good. The special effects were a little cheesy at parts but you kind of expect that with a low budget flick. I'm giving it two stars in the hopes that maybe I missed the point because of the audio problems.

Alistar Baker

20 May 2012

Probably Not Worth Your Time

A part of me wants to like this horror/thriller because the film hasdecent pacing in the beginning, the idea of the movie had a lot ofpotential. One wonders what happened to all those people on theso-called 'Yellow Brick Road'. Maybe the modern day investigative teamwill unravel the mystery. But the denouement of the story becomesevident early on. I felt like I already knew what was going to happento everyone before I got even half-way through. There are a fewcreative episodes of lunacy which I thought made the film a bit betterthan a total waste of time though. Sadly, this film isn't particularlyscary in the sense that it doesn't stick with you afterwards and creepyou out like a good horror flick should. The first downer for me waswhen things start to get ugly and violent, the way it was shot lookedso fake that I immediately thought the director just didn't know how todo violence and gore very well. I mean especially in a film like thiswhere realism is meant to be the device that creates a sense of dread,instead it came across as campy, and amateurish. Too bad. Basically, asthings start to fall apart, it takes on a sort of unintentionalhorror-comedy quality that is usually reserved for bad movie versionsof Stephen King stories. On the other hand, this film has a fewelements that I did like. Some of the acting was not that bad, therewere a few moments that I thought were psychologically unnerving. Butit probably isn't worth your time, unless you just like watching lowbudget independent horror flicks for the hell of it, like me.

19 May 2012

Some Ideas should just be left on paper

This review is from: YellowBrickRoad (Amazon Instant Video) What started off as a great idea for a moviely slowly went the way of yet another bad horror movie. The basic presmise was great. A group of people going off to solve a great mystery that is left unsolved. What makes me wonder is in this day and age if they wanted to survey the area before hand why didn't they use google/yahoo maps? For me where this movie went bad was the music. Suddenly they hear music playing and it slowly drives them mad. Granted I would have gone mad if I had to listen to that music 24/7 but I thought it needed something else to build up the horror. If anything the music just got annoying over time and by the end of the movie I had turned down the volume. To it's credit there was one moment where I did go OMG and it did peak my interest. That was the scene where a leg got ripped off. Beyond that though there is no real scares, no horror, a little gore and a slow moving boring plot.

aaronpico2004

19 May 2012

How NOT to make a movie...

Really?...This film is a prime example of how a director might have a clear ideaof the motivations, and subtleties of a story, and fail at translatingthem to film. There's too much assumption that the viewer knows what'sgoing on. Take my word, we don't. There's no continuity between scenes.The film seems like a series of scenes as opposed to being an entirestory, and the acting follows suit. The film feels disjointed and hasplenty of hackneyed & borrowed tidbits throughout.I finished the film as an act of discipline. It did absolutely nothingfor me, sorry.

19 May 2012

Theres no place like home.

This review is from: YellowBrickRoad (Amazon Instant Video) ***SPOILER ALERT**** ****SPOILER ALERT****I give this movie 4 stars because the acting, IMHO, is fantastic. The direction and especially the editing is fantastic! However, I'm getting so tired of writers [or maybe directors] who are to lazy or lack the creative acumen to [again ****SPOILER ALERT****]think up a decent ending to the story & cop-out with the excuse "I wanted to leave the audience with something to think about". Give me a break!!! A question like 'why did Walter never fall in love'[?] yea, that I don't mind trying to answer myself; but, not the entire ending to the movie. But, if that's your kind of movie, then, you will be thrilled with this one [probably].b/b)O(

17 May 2012

Yellow Brick BORE

Oh my god, This movie was such a let down and so boring. It was one of the worse. Like Blair witch all hype.

btbriddle

16 May 2012

Yellow Brick Road Possible Film Influences

The first thing that comes to mind, for me, and many others thatwatched Yellow Brick Road is it's similarity to the old and greatRussian film masterpiece "Stalker".The premise of the film in Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker is very similarto the principle and initial concept to Yellow Brick Road, which is atrip into a mysterious "Zone" where the land and directions are twistedby dreaded anomalies in physics.More so, the idea that all your answers could be found at the end ofthe road is not necessarily derived from the film "Wizard of OZ" asimplied, but more so from the same premise of the film and book"Stalker" to which a room of sorts at the end of the journey can grantyou your wishes and desires.Yellow Brick Road not only has many of Stalker's principle concepts,but also the low-brush feel of the abandoned terrain as well, thoughStalker, even in it's much older date, is cinematically far superior.Yellow Brick Road is clearly influenced by such great psychologicalfilms such as Stalker & The Shining. (And far less by The Blair WitchProject to which it is too often compared to) And, in tow, it too, hasa slow-burn, being a fine film that very gradually introduces you tothe horror aspects of its plot.So, if you're not patient, don't sit this one out. However if you are,you'll be pleased by the complexity and excellent execution of thefilm's mysteriously poised premise and interpretations.Still, Yellow Brick Road departs from the Stalker recipe and moves intoits own original motives, which are hunkered down by eerie yetsometimes, annoying horror motifs.At times, this film seems torn between a science fiction theme and ahorror one, and adds in a purposeful sense of mystery to it, with nointention of ever explaining the end.The ending, in of itself, was clearly made with NO real definition;meaning that it was purposefully created to be interpreted differentlyby individual viewers. It is not a fixed or solidly explained ending,nor hints at any "credible" revelation either.This is NOT a spoiler, but a simple warning that viewers will eitherlove the surreal twist, or hate what's left to be personallyinterpreted.Unlike newer and similar films with Hitch-And-Twist endings, such as"Vanishing On 7th Street", Yellow Brick Road leaves no hints at itslasting intention, other than portraying some of its characters asreaching a possible hellish demise.Still, Yellow Brick Road is a rich and imaginative horror film thatuniquely uses music and sheer creepiness to stir up much psychologicalscare tactics. It's also run on a small budget with actors of less thanhigh caliber. However this does not take away from the strongperformances and overall high quality of the movie.If you like bizarre films and movies with a bit of a "Silent Hill" or"The Shinning" effect, this one is for you.

fontroy5

13 May 2012

A true Psychological Gem

I'm surprised when USA get's decent ideas for horror you fling themaway. I seen this both with Session 9 and this. Both amazing movies.This one here uses sound in a way I've never seen, the sound becomesthe boogeyman, it unnerves and increases tension. I at first worriedthis would be some stupid slasher or some such. I was happily surprisedas it all came together and only after seeing the ending again, Iunderstand now what the end was about. This film isn't for light hearted Cinema goer, nor people who praiseonly horror classics. It's for people who love Cinema and goodpsychological horror, not overt and over the top. It's not for everyone, but I love it, glad I had BloodyDisgustingrecommend it for me. Least they know what they're talking about.

Barry Nofzinger

12 May 2012

Hated it

Why is it that movie makers today get to take a scary story and throwin a bunch of gore and call it a horror film? This wasn't a horrorfilm. I wasn't horrified, I was appalled. What a joke. The premise waspretty good and it had the potential to be a good idea, but from thefirst gore moment, it went south. First of all, the first 40 minuteswas seriously boring. I mean, okay, we get it already, your trying tohike a trail that no one wants you to find or will even talk about. Tospend 40 minutes of the movie on this is the work of an amateur. So,then we have the first gore scene. Was it me or did this seem to be abit over the top? We went from 40 minutes of snoozing to HOLY S^%# inabout 2 seconds. Too much too fast. Plus, this wasn't scary orhorrifying, it was ludicrous, because there wasn't any build up to anact of violence like that. The rest of the movie just stunk from thatpoint on. This one ranks right up there with Wrong Turn for me. If Icould give this movie a score of -100, then I would. Hated it.

12 May 2012

Brainy, indie horror

It may not be for everyone but this is a great, slow burn of an indie horror flick. As it slowly peels back the layers of madness you will either end up frustrated and confused or you will appreciate the ride it's taking you on. The scariest things in life aren't what we know, it's what we don't know. I obviously fall into the camp that loved it. Great script, great cast, great direction and great aesthetics for a low budget movie.

illogic66

11 May 2012

Starts bland, becomes bizarre and disturbing

I saw this film on Netflix. I barely paid any attention to this filmfor the first twenty minutes. The ideas were interesting but thecharacters weren't. I began paying attention when the music started,and it got weird fast. The atmosphere of the film became very menacingand nightmarish-- the sound effects, lighting and visual design wereexcellent. Some of the violence was really strangely-visualized andlooked like it was intentionally fake-looking in some ways-- there wasa murder and a suicide which both looked oddly humorous, but could haveeasily been done more realistically even on this film's budget and Ithink it was a stylistic decision by the filmmakers to make thecharacters' intentions more ambiguous and make the audience wonder whatthe hell's going on.I liked the fact that things were not entirely explained; one reviewerhere said they hoped it would become a 'cannibals in the woods' story,and to me that sounds much more obvious and way less interesting thanwhat happened. I don't like having everything explained to me, and Ifelt the script's best point is the fact that it carefully andstrategically draws the viewer to use their imagination if they've gotone-- it evoked a sense of wonder, though a very dark one which reallyhad me feeling uneasy at times. I'm a musician and was very impressedwith the use of sound as a supernatural weapon of sorts. I've hadnightmares like this film. Side note: I think the filmmakers may haveheard the song 'Return to Oz' by the Scissor Sisters, because there aresome lines of dialogue which are very similar to the chorus from thatsong.

clomez240

05 May 2012

Yellow Brick Wall

This movie is basically "Blair Witch Project" meets "Dead End" meets"Children of the Corn." It seems to have great potential, but the end result is incrediblyunsatisfying. The trailer and the summary of the plot hyping up the background of thetown of Friar is hardly mentioned and never explained. The entire moviehas the viewers asking questions, and literally none of them come closeto being answered. For example, what happens to our resident girl fromFriar once she's left as the last 'man' standing? Even more obvious andfrustrating, what happened to the people of the town of Friar in the40's? Why was it covered up by the military? The plot took us absolutely no where except for the classic "the woodsmake people crazy and they kill each other" scenario. Arguably, "psychologically" thrilling; indisputably frustrating. But hey, if you enjoy a good 40's jam and random references to theWizard of Oz, this is definitely the right movie for you.

04 May 2012

Channeling Tarkovsky

OK, this movie will not be for everyone. It bucks the mainstream horror trend in that it does not provide a plot-less, pointless gore fest (which I thoroughly enjoy at times). It is slow paced, has an interesting storyline and even provokes a little thought. The acting is good, the script is tight and the cinematography is top shelf. The few flaws that do pop up suggest inexperience rather than sloppy movie making. No, I am not saying this is on par with Stalker or Solaris (for those who actually got the Tarkovsky reference), but the approach to film making is similar: The struggle to comprehend the dream vs reality,a sublime nightmare, the power of one's own imagination and consciousness all come to play in this movie if you let yourself go there. So if you want something mindless, something to evoke the gross-out response, pass this one by. If you looking for something that will take you in, entertain you while giving you something to chew on, leaving you pondering what it all meant for sometime after the movie, then hunker down, open you mind and enjoy the ride.

kdkpranks

03 May 2012

A Great Concept Goes To Waste

When I heard the premise of this film, (a bunch of people follow atrail into the hills of New Hampshire where, 70 years before, an entiretown trekked, never to be seen again) I was excited to watch. Theset-up is okay. The acting it adequate. The direction is fine. Thescenery (what of it that isn't muddy and colorless from color'correction') is pretty. But the story. O dear, the story. The entiremovie is a series of decent ideas presented, and never explained. Whydid they trek the trail 70 years ago? Why is there music? Why is theresuddenly ear-shattering noise? Why does everyone go crazy? Why don'tthe compasses work? How can a man rip off the leg of a full-grown womanwith his bare hands? Ask all you want. You won't find answers here.This movie is a mess pretending to be clever, hoping YOU will fill init's blanks. Most of it is all whispers and mumbles, until you're earsget shattered by cheap sound-scare attempts. I'd say pass on this oneunless you need a good way to fall asleep... and then jarred awake.Repeatedly.

Heislegend

03 May 2012

So close

Man, I hate to parrot what everyone else has said about this movie, butit's so patently obvious. This film starts so well. It really is veryinteresting and holds your attention pretty well. The about two-thirdsof the way in it just totally falls apart. I don't mean the ending isjust kind of weak and gives you the same feeling as when you watched"Signs"...I mean that it utterly and completely fails to provide anykind of storyline progress and might as well have just happened in adifferent movie.Now you may be asking yourself, if you were so inclined, "Can it reallybe that bad?". You wouldn't think so, but it is. I literally cannot putexplain to you how awful this ending ruins the film without givinganything away. A friend of mine actually inquired about the movie, andI gave him my two cents. He decided to watch it anyway, and I got atext later telling me what part of the movie he was at and he had noidea what I was talking about. About 20 minutes later I got anothertext full of swear words. Yes, it's that bad.

02 May 2012

Great premise, well executed, awful ending (slight spoilers)

This review is from: YellowBrickRoad (Amazon Instant Video) Remember when you'd visit your grandparents and they'd play their favorite old tunes over and over and over and over again? Did it make you so crazy that you told your sister/brother that you were going to kill them? No? Then this film isn't for you....Did I enjoy the film's premise, yes! It was well executed, the acting was solid and once you go beyond the "ghost hunters" concept and move into the why they are making this trip in the first place - it was good. Was I freaked out by some of the more suspenseful moments? Yes, absolutely. I kept looking over my shoulder and turning on lights while I was watching this. That part was fantastic and I felt the film delivered in giving me the heebie-geebies. The scene at the cave really caught me off guard.Was the ending a complete and total let down - HECK YEAH! The premise held promise, the actors had me in full freakout mode and then? Well, I won't tell everything, but let's say that even the Cowardly Lion would have said, What the what? That's not scary at all....So would I recommend it? No, I am sorry to say that I cannot...If anyone is open to getting a slight thrill for 80% of a film - go for it. For everyone else, see something else.

02 May 2012

Seriously the worst movie I have ever seen

This review is from: YellowBrickRoad (Amazon Instant Video) I watch a lot of movies, horror/suspense movies the most, and I can honestly say that I have never, EVER seen such a bad movie in my entire life. I kept watching waiting... hoping that it would get better, and it didn't. I sat in awe at the end of the movie wondering what I just put myself through. I really don't have any other words for this movie, except HORRIBLE. I really don't understand where the makers thought they were going with this. I still can't believe I continued to watch the entire thing. Watchers beware ... watch out of curiosity if you wish, but do not expect a great movie night.