Director: Erdal Ceylan
Writer: Erdal Ceylan (Screenplay) Paul Burton (Story)
Starring: Alyson Walker, Tony Giroux, Meelah Adams, Ian Butcher, Tyler Butcher, Shaun Morse, Matthew Graham
Plot: After her cousin comes to visit and falls ill, a woman starts to receive strange cell phone messages.
Runtime: 1 Hour 13 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Frightless Horror
Story: Selfie from Hell starts as Hannah (Walker) is getting a visit from her cousin Julia (Adams) a vlogger with a big following, only upon the meeting, Julia isn’t being her usual self. When Julia stars taking selfies, a figure is seen getting closer on each snap, before she gets attack, left ill in a coma like state.
Hannah decides to investigate what Julia’s latest project was, which takes her into the dark net with her computer expert friend Trevor (Giroux) giving her the warnings, which she doesn’t follow, as Hannah ends up being the latest target of the evil that targeted Julia.
Thoughts on Selfie from Hell
Characters – Hannah is a young lady that works from home in computing, well I am guessing this, she is hosting her cousin’s visit. She must investigate what happened to her cousin after an unexplained event happens, which sees her investigate the dark net against the advice of her friend, giving away personal data, as it does target her next. Trevor is the friend that helps Hannah through his knowledge of the dark net, the two have a strange relationship, with the events of the film giving them a chance to meet. Julia is the vlogger cousin that isn’t her normal self, she takes a selfie only to find herself becoming attacked by the evil presence, left in a coma for the film.
Performances – When it comes to the performances, it doesn’t help that the characters are plain terrible, it makes it hard for the actors to make anything from the film, Alyson Walker doesn’t feel like a leading lady either, Tony Giroux struggles to, but his character feels like it should be more of a info guy that should be killed off early. The acting doesn’t improve, but we barely get to see anybody else in the film either.
Story – The story follows a woman that must investigate her cousin’s mysterious illness, which has a connection to a selfie and the dark net, the secret she finds put her in real danger. Well, that is about it for the story. when we look at this style of story, we can look at films like Pulse for ideas, which is where this film fails, because it just doesn’t give us enough belief to how deadly whatever is happening is. The story has mounting problems with what is happening, be the it casually going into the dark net, the fact it was easy to go into and a computer expert is happy to download random software on their computer. Most scenes just involve Hannah being told not to do something and the next scene she does them anyway.
Horror/Mystery – The horror in the film relies on just making loud noises for false scares with nothing getting any reaction form the audience, while the mystery could have been interesting, only it just doesn’t make sense.
Settings – The film is set mostly in the one home, which does help with the budget, it is used to show that you can bring the horror into your home.
Special Effects – The effects in the film are basic at best, most are flashing images, but when we do get to see something creepier, it just becomes CGI mess.
Scene of the Movie – F34R3473R first appearance.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Hannah’s decision-making process.
Final Thoughts – This was a terribly boring horror, that frustrates more than it scares, it tries to use a craze, but it just drags along even though it is only just an hour long.
Overall: Terribly bad horror.
Rating
