I have never been this torn on a rating. One one hand, the story makes no fucking sense and ends without any real resolution. On the other hand, I definitely understand the comparisons to Malignant in that The Other 100% knows that it's dumb as fuck and leans into it. Half of the performances are shit and half are pretty okay. Some of the effects look like fucking KidPix and some are insane and super fun. The problem here is that there are scenes that are a blast to watch, but unfortunately this isn't a compilation of clips; this is a whole movie and it does not work at all. It's hard to not touch on spoilers, but there are so many things that need explanations. Can we just begin with the adoption lady saying that the girl is mute but finds ways to communicate. When? Other than a couple of head shakes, how does she communicate at all? She has this dead fucking stare on her blank face the entire movie. I think it is partially that she's not a good actresses, but like, can't the girl write or pantomime? Beyond it making the dumb shit in the story easier to get away with, it makes no sense. At no point is this a good movie, but it is a fun movie about 40% of the time; the rest of the movie is repetitive and boring. The best I can do for you is to say that the fun of this movie is discussing it with your friends afterwords (or just yelling at the TV screen like I did). You can not enjoy this as a real film; your enjoyment is fully dependent on how much you love making fun of and picking apart bad movies. I don't know, this movie is a fucking mess and I don't know what to think. It's almost exclusively nonsense, but I don't get the impression that the movie thinks it is anything else. I just really needed a coherent story that at least makes rudimentary sense.
I have never been this torn on a rating. One one hand, the story makes no fucking sense and ends without any real resolution. On the other hand, I definitely understand the comparisons to Malignant in that The Other 100% knows that it's dumb as fuck and leans into it. Half of the performances are shit and half are pretty okay. Some of the effects look like fucking KidPix and some are insane and super fun. The problem here is that there are scenes that are a blast to watch, but unfortunately this isn't a compilation of clips; this is a whole movie and it does not work at all. It's hard to not touch on spoilers, but there are so many things that need explanations. Can we just begin with the adoption lady saying that the girl is mute but finds ways to communicate. When? Other than a couple of head shakes, how does she communicate at all? She has this dead fucking stare on her blank face the entire movie. I think it is partially that she's not a good actresses, but like, can't the girl write or pantomime? Beyond it making the dumb shit in the story easier to get away with, it makes no sense. At no point is this a good movie, but it is a fun movie about 40% of the time; the rest of the movie is repetitive and boring. The best I can do for you is to say that the fun of this movie is discussing it with your friends afterwords (or just yelling at the TV screen like I did). You can not enjoy this as a real film; your enjoyment is fully dependent on how much you love making fun of and picking apart bad movies. I don't know, this movie is a fucking mess and I don't know what to think. It's almost exclusively nonsense, but I don't get the impression that the movie thinks it is anything else. I just really needed a coherent story that at least makes rudimentary sense.