We Are Still Here (2015)

The first fifteen or twenty minutes of this movie were gold. It was horror done right. Atmospheric, paying upon the unknown, subtle scares. The dialogue was pretty bad, but I was more than engaged by the building horror.

then, suddenly, the movie completely loses its restraint and becomes a goofy gore fest with monsters that just might be action heroes.

I don't want to say anything else because I don't want to add spoilers. I'll just say that I love horror movies. It is my favorite genre. There are different levels of horror. There is true, psychological mind screws that get under the skin and stay there for days (my favorite kind). On the opposite end of the spectrum are these CGI, "thrill" driven, blood-and-gore-a-minute for people with no attention spans (my lease favorite kind). The latter has its place. No doubt. My only problem with this film is that it pretends, and many of the reviewers on here seem to be pretending, that it's the former.

I honestly feel like the victim of false advertising and I have a hard time believing the almost universal praise this movie received. I know my tastes lean a bit more towards the artsy and stylish (and old), but I cannot be THIS out of touch. For god's sake, I just watched Age of Ultron last night and enjoyed a lot of things about it.

Fmovies: Overall the film disappointed me, but its one of those indie horror films that does certain things so well it kinda sticks with you. I enjoyed it but didn't blow me away like I wanted it to. I liken it that movie

"I Am a Ghost (2012)" -If you liked this go watch that.

On the pro side of things they did an amazing job emulating the atmosphere of a 70's era horror film. I really could not seem to pick out any modern day features. On the whole that seems hard to do, but the benefit is you don't have to get wrapped up in ex machina like cellphones not working for no particular reason etc. When the house creaks and utilities fail it all fits together nicely. Lots of creepiness and edginess. The OST was great.

On the Cons side of things the acting was just wooden over the top and cringe worthy. The problem is Im certain this was on purpose. A couple of actors I recall are experienced and I wasn't buying their delivery. It was very purposely scripted to be like 70s horror. It doesn't work and you end up just trudging your way through exasperatingly bad dialog to keep enjoying the rest of it. I liked that they kept the plot inferred through conversation but suddenly for no good reason they monologue a big chunk of the story midway through. It was dumb and unnecessary. Ruined the suspense for me. Lastly the "monsters" were shown too much and the gore lightened the tension so much all the creepiness was sucked out of it in the last act.

Its a solid b+ for concept and design. It sits at a 5.8 and that sounds about right to me. If they'd worked the script a little better and or tighten up the special effects this could have been a solid 7.

I really wanted to get into this film for Halloween. I thought it would be a new classic horror film I missed but I was mostly wrong. There are some great effects, scares and atmosphere in We Are Still Here. Also these ghosts don't mess around, they kill and do it in brutal ways. I felt like I was watching a ghost slasher film at times.

That's the positive stuff. Here's the negative:

1. I disliked the cast, especially the main couple. 2. Some of the acting just isn't good. 3. The ending is all over the place. 4. The house wasn't scary or very unique.

I recommend this as a rental. I wouldn't watch it again though.

We Are Still Here fmovies. Middle aged couple grieving the recent loss of their son move into a remote house, and find themselves caught between the evil in the basement and the nutters from the local town.

Swimming against the tide, I know, but I found this really poor. It opens with nice shots of the snowy landscape, then a couple driving to a destination - standard horror opening, but the dialogue has nothing. If you want to see how it's done with skill and imagination watch From the Dark (2014). We get to the destination, and it's '70s anti-colour co-ordination as the couple meets another middle aged couple, and the dialogue still has nothing.

It's about couples really - I think there are 5, if you include the basement dwellers. But the script does nothing with it. Satire of '70s swingers? No. Surely then it has a coherent, satisfying story? No. Ah, but it references '70s horror and has some cheesy gore. OK, but pfff.

Lots of sound-based attempts at jump scares. Feeble CGI. The ghosts look like they wandered off the set of The Fog.

Overall, bunch of middle aged actors get caught in juvenile misdemeanor. Community service all round.

ps. from the Ebert review: "Full disclosure: Mr. G. has a day job as a New-York-based movie publicist, and I've had friendly and rewarding exchanges with him in that context."

Greetings from Lithuania.

"We Are Still Here" (2015) is a pretty effective horror film. It has some great atmosphere, good chills, scary sounds and images and very solid acting. The problems with this movie begins at the end - they somehow didn't live up to the great hype they achieved in the first part of this movie, and ending is just blood bath. Nevertheless, almost everything works were so good that i can safely recommend this movie to all horror lovers.

Overall, "We Are Still Here" isn't original, but it's effective genre picture. It has great chilling "hounted house" setting, intriguing cinematography, good acting, nice pacing (although movie is kinda short), and some genuinely good scares. All in all i can recommend to see this horror flick. The ending is a bit off, nevertheless the whole ride is pretty good.

I am admittedly not a big fan of Lucio Fulci AKA The Godfather of Gore. He made some good films(Zombi 2 and City of the living Dead) but I am not a fan of his House by the Cemetery. I still liked his way of developing atmosphere although he torpedoed it himself by putting gratuitous gore and illogical sequences though it was part of his charm. So, when I heard of We Are Still Here and how it's a tribute to Fulci's films, I was intrigued if not too hopeful. Fortunately, it turned out to be a wonderful surprise.

The best part about this movie apart from the creepy atmosphere and the beautiful ice-covered New England scenery is the very good performances by nearly everyone in the cast, especially Barbara Crampton, Andrew Sensenig and the extremely creepy Monte Markham. Larry Fessenden is on hand to provide a bit of ham which he does with glee. The film much like Fulci's post-Zombi 2 films, ultimately explodes in a gore-drenched frenzy though this one still keeps sight of it's central characters. It is also surprisingly well-paced and doesn't sag in the middle like others of it's genre.

It's true that the story isn't original but the acting, direction and effects are so strong that they make up for it. I will even be audacious enough to say that this might be a better horror film than It Follows which despite stronger scares, stagnated in the middle. The director, Geoghegan seems very promising and I will eagerly await his next feature.

Altamente Raccomandato!