The Big Bad (2011)

Wonderful Movie

Powerful

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I am not really sure if the people who made this film thought that by shooting it out of focus it would seem more artistic or surreal, but all it does is just make it nauseating. I normally try to point out the good and the bad when I write a review but this one is pretty lopsided. So here goes. The good: Not a thing I can think of.The bad: The camera-work, the framing, the sound, the acting, the makeup, the special effects, the story. The premise has a grain of what could have been made into a good horror movie. Werewolf falls in love with a normal woman who has a kid. Misjudges and accidentally kills her while changed. Daughter hunts him down only to find there is a hidden underground of werewolves who are also hunting him. That could go several different ways. She could have met up with the underground and helped them only to have them turn on her in the end. She could have found her stepfather, forgiven him, then fought by his side against the underground. She could have started a revolution in the underground. She could have hunted them all down and killed them indiscriminately becoming either a hero or a worse monster than the werewolves. None of that happened though. The entire underground subplot was introduced then abandoned completely with no explanations. In fact many things in this movie have no explanation. Where on earth do you find clear liquid silver in an eye dropper bottle? Why did she have "you have 3 days left" written in her notebook when there was a full moon that night and at least two months had passed since her mother was killed based on Molly's story? Why did all the women in this movie look like they never took a shower, brushed their hair, or wore makeup except for the lead? Why bring up the werewolf biting Molly's son then not mention him ever again? Why did throwing water on her dissolve Annabelle like the wicked witch of the west in Wizard of Oz? If she put some of her silver supplement in the water it never showed it. How did she say her final line when all that was left of her was a scarf and some smoke? This movie lacks any coherence at all. It's not scary, funny, interesting, or artistic. I would hope that half of it got cut and that created the problem rather than think that someone actually wrote a script like that. And the werewolf special effects... We won't even go there. You can buy a better werewolf mask at the dollar store. This movie is a complete waste of time. I couldn't in good conscience recommend it to anyone.

Frankie and Molly, two women with rage issues and non-healing wounds, meet at a bar and get to know each other over drinks and drugs. They eventually bond over the fact that they have both been bitten by a werewolf.Molly turns; Frankie deals with that. Then Frankie is kidnapped and taken to Annabelle, who rips out one of Frankie's eyes to replace one of hers. Frankie eventually counterattacks and gets away. She finds her stepfather, Fenton, and his alter ego.Will Frankie get free of the werewolves, or become part of the community? -----Scores-----Cinematography: 2/10 Framing, lighting, focus, depth of field, and continuity errors---all suck rocks. Throw in shaky camera.Sound: 4/10 Not very good. I needed the subtitles all too often.Acting: 0/10 Uniformly bad.Screenplay: 0/10 That opening was -8 points all by itself. The film's plot development was as murky and jerky as the camera work. None of the characters were interesting.---------- 1/10 is just too generous, but that is the lowest score on IMDb.

This movie was terrible. The director was horrible. The filming looked like it was done with a cell phone. The first hour or so was blurry and poorly lit. The casting was bad. There were plenty of scenes in this movie that should have just been deleted. In one segment it took the girl like 5 minutes to stumble out of a bar. I normally don't care about poor effects but it is worth noting that the werewolf looks pretty bad. We spent the first half of this movie waiting for it to start, then we spent the second half of it wishing it would just end. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy plenty of low budget movies but this one was just painful! Don't waste your $1.20 at Redbox. You will probably regret it.

Plot: Frankie goes to a bar in search for a man responsible for the death of her family, but can't seem to find anyone with a connection to him. After a meeting with a woman who seems to share a few things with Frankie's past, Frankie is soon thrown into something that turns her quest for revenge into something much worse. A place where she will be eye to eye with a beast, and has to fight for her survival.Our thoughts: If you know me, you know I love werewolf movies. I mean, the good ones. And not just the graphic stuff, but generally the idea of werewolves is damn creepy. I first got interested in "The Big Bad" for this reason, but I also knew that this wouldn't really be a werewolf horror movie as much as a mystery. That usually means a lack of werewolves, and that was the case with this one. There's nothing wrong with that at all, just figured I'd throw that out there for anyone who might be in a similar position as me."The Big Bad" is the name of a bar where our lead, Frankie, goes to find answers about a beast that killed her family. She's looking for a man, but no one seems to be able to help her. That is, until she meets a woman in the ladies' room. The two hit off and start talking about their past, and soon it appears that she knows a thing or two about the man Frankie is after. But after saying the wrong thing, the woman grows teeth and attacks Frankie. This is just the beginning of a spiral into very dark places, and Frankie finds herself in a battle of blood between the surreal and reality.What I absolutely loved about this movie was that it so successfully made the whole werewolf thing mysterious. After having watch a number of werewolf movies, it's hard for filmmakers to make it a successful mystery. While we might know where it was heading eventually, it took some really interesting turns to get there. The first third of the movie, if not more, is spent in the bar where we slowly puzzle together what Frankie and her new friend are all about, as well as how the werewolf mythos is implemented in the movie. It takes its time, and it's much needed. It never gets boring because it sways between drama, horror and even comedy. Not straight-out comedy, but there are several moments that show a darker comedy - many of them through comments or reactions by Frankie. And one scene that feels a bit "Evil Dead 2"-ish - let's just say it has to do with getting stuff on you... and a whole lot of stuff, at that. I can't say whether that helps the movie or not in the long run, but it makes the slower parts a lot more interesting.After the bar scene, it quickly moves to crime/cult/horror territory and this is my biggest issue with the movie. It takes time with the first part, which is great. The third part is slightly shorter but just enough for us to get an entertaining finale. The middle part, however, goes way too fast. It seems like it is missing a few steps in the dramaturgy here, and just goes from A directly to C (or with a lower-case "b" in the middle). While we might understand what happens still, we're not there emotionally. What started as the beginning of an epic search for Frankie is soon cut short. This was definitely the main flaw of the movie. After that, however, I think we have a solid horror movie going on. It's atmospheric and has plenty of action without ever leaving the roots of mystery behind: we rarely know exactly what's up. Had the middle part been slightly longer and fully developed then I am sure it would've made the ending even better."The Big Bad" is a good horror mystery that could've been a lot more. I still recommend it, though, and especially to fans of werewolf movies. While it's not the most typical werewolf movie, it carries some of the most important things successfully: it's mysterious, it's atmospheric and the werewolf looks believable. Of course, I am always a bigger fan of werewolves that look more like wolves and less like "The Wolf Man", but that's rarely a problem as much as a preference. The werewolves here are of the old kind, and if you expect that then there's nothing to be annoyed by. It's an interesting movie with a solid production, some interesting visual ideas and most of the time very good acting, so check it out if you want a little semi-surreal and dreamlike werewolf mystery!More reviews at FilmBizarro.com