Elfie Hopkins (2012)

Too much of everything

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Attempting to find meaning in her world, an amateur detective finds her new small-town neighbors are the perfect opportunity to refine her skills only to stumble upon an even deadlier secret that threatens her small-town home.This one here didn't really turn out all that bad and had some decent stuff about it. What really tends to work here is the slow-broiling mystery throughout here which comes off rather nicely with the strange, odd family seeming like completely worthwhile avenue of study here that really makes for quite a nice time. The fanciful stories and traveling quips, the secretive glances and looks at each other and then the sudden slow-turn into being mysterious and somewhat intimidating lets this initiate the mystery into the fine later half here as this one manages to get that paid off in rather exciting form here as there's a lot of rather enjoyable encounters to come from how they manage to keep up their true nature in the face of the continually persecutions. That leads to plenty of fun here with the building evidence fully realized in the rather brutal encounter in the woods where the entire family is shown engaging in the stalking which is what makes for quite a fun time overall here as the night-time forest setting is put to great use here. Likewise, the family brawling in the final half is all kinds of fun with the stalking taking place on the multiple floors of the house, the brutality in the kills is appealing and it pays off the mystery quite well here. These here are enough to make this one worthwhile despite the fact that there's not much else in here. The film is more of a mystery film about her sleuthing their behavior for the majority of the film and that doesn't tend to offer very much in the way of interesting efforts here since these consist of her sitting in front of a computer piecing everything together or going off on accusations that don't really amount to much throughout here in terms of exciting sequences since nothing happens until the end. The mystery does work, but it's not how it goes about accomplishing it which is where this one falls. As well, the film also tends to run along a big side-plot about her friend and how he's carrying on in life without her, and despite this attempting to stir up a rather noticeable amount of teen-angst drama about it there's just nothing really interesting about them due to the low-key nature of their discussions really bringing anything about them. Otherwise, this here was pretty decent overall.Rated R: Extreme Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Brief Full Nudity and rampant drug use and references.

This is much better than reviews would suggest. On a scale of 0-10 for flawed films where 0 = The Wicker Tree (flawed and bad), 5 = Ginger Snaps (flawed but good), 10 = Dellamorte Dellamore, aka Cemetery Man (flawed but brilliant), this rates 5 +/- 1, depending on what you think of the acting.The film itself is well shot, well conceived and well executed. Compared to utter crud like Jeepers Creepers, this is in a different league when it comes to intention and execution. If Amicus produced Midsomer Murders, it could be something like this.There are annoyances: poor dialogue, clichéd characterisation but also pleasant surprises: my heart sank a little when the film began with a girl (our heroine, a "final girl" right from the start: she just doesn't realise it) getting out of a car that won't start on a country lane. Nicely subverted when she walks a little distance and is home.It is a first feature and has maybe a few too many references but, on the whole, its sly humour works well. I've watched an awful lot of crap horror in the so-bad-it's-good category: this is not one of those.It's a proper film and is worth a look.

An aspiring teen detective (Jaime Winstone) stumbles into her first real case, when investigating the mysterious new family in her neighborhood... are they cannibals? I really have no review to put here because it just is not a film that captured my imagination. I do not want to say it was good or bad, because it never really amounted to much one way or the other. I felt like there was potential, but it just did not try hard enough.To properly review this I would have to watch it again, which I have no intention of doing. I cannot recall ever being so apathetic concerning a title ever... which is pretty bad. Typically there is something that jumps out as great or terrible... I guess I really liked the music in the third act, but that is not saying much.

This is the most underrated work I have ever reviewed. I didn't look it up first so I didn't know what I was going to get. Seeing that this film sits at 3.8/10 makes me never to decide whether or not to see a film on account of the IMDb & the user's collective "wisdom" alone. Although 95% of the time I do completely agree with them. This though was something different that carried a sort of a 60's-70's feel/dark beauty, with the scenery & sets, the wonderful colorful outfits & even the time they took to construct Elfie's room right down to the smallest of things. So the scenery & cinematography are 5/5 which definitely helped to even out some of the weak areas in the film.Getting back to the story now, a lot of people may compare it to Twilight mainly because of the dark & mysterious neighbors moving in next door, with the girl that starts to investigate the truth behind the obvious facade that they put forth, but wait, don't drop it from my previous observation. If anything it's a Twilight spoof but not the Scary Movie kind at all. It is a well told tale that is quite interesting from beginning to end. The imagery & cool vibe make it worth a watch. For the most part, the film was well acted despite the mostly novice cast. I really liked the character of Elfie Hopkins played by the up & coming Jaime Winstone, yes she is the daughter of Ray Winstone, the talent does seem to be genetic, it's undeniable, well at least in some cases. Ray Winstone only pops up for a few seconds once in the beginning & once in the end which was cool to see them appear together on screen for a bit. So why this sits at 3.8/10 when there is a unique little story with cute characters whose acting in my opinion didn't stick out a bit with good sound & cinematography that was spot on, is a mystery to me. It has a decent amount of dark humor in it, it's not meant to be a serious, gory, scare the heck out of you film. Although there is some moments of gore & suspense it isn't really that dark a film as its main mission is of a more lighthearted story telling.In checking the history of 3 of the other reviewers that gave this a 1/10, it was their first review in each case(which sounds personal to me) but the top two users gave it fair reviews so stick to them. I give this a solid 7/10 & I've written plenty(sorta)other reviews on films in these type of genre's in the past year. So you know who to believe, the other review by Tony Bush sums it up a bit better than I, and the mention of the boy & Harry Potter was spot on, I was thinking that during the entire film. I recommend it to anyone, just don't expect a tense gory experience. Even people that hate gore may very well still enjoy the story, just close your eyes for a few seconds here or there...7/10