I watched Circle, Trace, and The Gallows over the weekend.
Circle: This is a very simple film (50 people wake up standing in a circle; every two minutes one of them dies randomly; they can control their fates slightly by voting for the next person to be killed) and it's less a horror film and more a look into the moral depravity that the human race is capable of when pushed into extreme situations. It starts off weak, but about halfway through, it gets really crazy as voting blocks form and the characters get into heated arguments about hot-button issues. And the ending is BANANAS. 8/10
Trace: This is a low budget film with a familiar concept: seven young adults accidentally summon a demon that wants to kill them one by one. However, despite the unoriginal concept, I really enjoyed the film due to the characters. For no-name actors, they did an AMAZING job, especially the lead guy, Nick Fink. I don't normally care about the characters in these types of movies, but he really impressed me. He captured the essence of someone slowly going crazy wonderfully. I hope he gets some bigger roles because his talents were wasted in this film that I'm sure nobody will watch. 7/10
The Gallows: Wow. What a disaster. I remember when the trailer for this came out; I actually thought it looked good. I know it got torn apart on RT, but I ignore that stuff because horror movies are especially subjective. Anyway, RT was right about this one. It tricked me at first - the beginning was good. Then the actual "horror" part sets in and it was laughable. Every horror cliche is present in this movie, and Pfeifer is the most obnoxious bitch ever. Once
Ryan and Cassidy, the relatable characters who weren't sanctimonious pricks, were killed
I mostly tuned out. Even so, I still saw the ending twist coming a mile away. 1/10
who came up with that 