Written by Jesus Figueroa
@Thisfunktional
Psychological thriller PRETTY does not try to redefine the genre rather concentrating on constructing a full complete story.
After contact with the ghost of a murdered young girl, Pretty becomes obsessed with uncovering what happened. But as strange occurences plague her home, she finds herself in a twisted game of love, murder, and jealousy.
There are many more positive points to this film, even if it is not perfect.
Pro:
- The most important part is that it has a good story. Thé story is clear and complete, even as there are some bizarre and strange elements to it, there is nothing in the story that confuses the audience. The mannerisms which the story is presented helps make the premise enticing with twists and turn coming in unexpected timing.
- One of the bests parts of the film is the cinematography. With great use of atmosphere and lighting the visuals are great and add a different element to the story. Due to the placing of the camera, the audience can feel almost as another character of the film.
- As the scenes seem to lingers on the weird and bizarre to capture attention, the audience is caught anticipating scares or change that build up to surprising payoff.
- There are several great jump scares that are not over used. The viewer waits and waits for a scare to come, but the way the story is presented, the scares are placed at right moments to use a jump scare effectively. They are not overly used, but rather the beats of the jump scares are slightly prolonged to make the scare unexpected.
Cons:
- The story is well presented, but feels familiar and a bit predictable. While the scares are effective, the pacing of the entire film is a bit flat as it reveals story elements that are expected to the viewer.
- The story is well presented, but the acting was a bit monotone and lacked complexity in personalities for the characters. The story arc for each character never seems to really develop and thus makes each character seem to not change throughout. The story unfolds, but the emotions of the characters seem to always stay the same. There is slight change in the characters while the build up to the story is occurring.
Overall, I would rate this film a 7 out of 10. The film is good for streaming although it lacks depth. The film still contains a complete story which has good psychological thriller elements and few but effective jump scares. The acting was flat, but was not bad and took nothing away from the story. Visuals were great and camera placements did a good job of keeping the audience in the story. The film has garnered several awards on the festival circuit and is coming soon.
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Pretty is written/directed/edited/shot by medical student Metecan Duren who is currently 19 years old. Metecan Duren also composed the original soundtrack entirely on his own.
Director/Producer: Metecan Duren
Cast: Saran Duren, Melisa Kihtir, Omer Gursoy
