Ayla (2017)

Excellent but underrated film

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

OK - so this film isn't going to appeal to the gore fans, but it is a decent film to watch.It is very well acted, the technical aspects are spot-in, and the story - well - it's almost there but not quite.This film moves along at a leisurely pace, so if you have the attention span of a goldfish it won't appeal to you, and probably won't if you are looking for light entertainment.This film will appeal to you if you like a story where you can get to know/understand more of the characters than just the superficial scream-fest characters we see in so many other films.One thing does let this film down very badly, and that it the ending. I just don't know what they were thinking ending a film like this.

It's not scary, not well acted, and it's very, very boring! Please don't waste time watching this!

I watch an hour of this film which I will never get back. The cover makes it look like an Insidious type title. I expected some horror but it was dull and uninspiring. In the hour I watched next to nothing happened except some weird sex scene. I wanted so much more but it didn't deliver.

Ayla is a profound and mournful little film dwelling on loss, grief and mental illness. A man can have a supportive family, a girlfriend who loves him, and still be plagued by his own personal demons. Elton is obsessed with the life he never had with his sister who died tragically when she was four. This plays into his own mental health issues that cause him to self-harm. In a moment of bizarre fantasy he is able to will his sister into being. But how does this grown woman who has miraculously appeared in his life even know how to be his sister? Many of us think about those in our lives we miss or wish we could have known better but when death separates us, what is it that we're actually bringing back?This is a low budget movie funded through Kickstarter so don't expect grandiose special effects or lavish sets and settings. Instead you get a deeply committed cast willing to do what it takes to make these feel like real, sympathetic characters that you can relate to. Ayla is a film that is as much a family drama and a meditation on grief as much as it is a horror film. Much is left to the audience to interpret and figure out how they feel about what happens, it's taken me most of a week to be able to really process what the film is about in my own head. If you get a chance to see this on the festival circuit please do, you're not going to find much else at there quite like Ayla.