Cruel Will (2013)

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Genre : Horror (?),Thriller
Country : USA

Cast :
Arron Kinser : Paul
Marissa Pistone : Lily
Spencer Garrett : Frederick

Director :
Arthur Romeo

Summary

Tragedy strikes married couple Paul and Lily, when Lily's father dies. Lily has her father cremated, brings the urn home and now Paul has to come to terms with the death of his father-in-law whom he had despised. The situation gets a bit frayed when the lid to the urn mysteriously disappears, and Paul begins to experience happenings no one else is aware of.

My opinion

I thought "Apocalypse Earth", "Alien Uprising", "Dino Shark" and "The Uprising" would never be surpassed in the category of "Most horrible bad movie ever", until I saw this monstrosity. "Cruel Will" is a low-budget indie horror. You can notice that surely after a while. Absolutely everything in this film doesn't make sense or is terribly wrong. The content, the storyline, the performances, the thrills and the intense atmosphere ... Really all of this is either bad or totally absent. You can hardly call this creation a horror movie. Even thriller is not applicable. Better you call it a tragedy.

Paul and Lily are a married couple and one day disaster strikes. Lily's father dies suddenly and is cremated. Lily is obviously quite devoted to her father (and afterwards I had to conclude that she really had no reason to) and takes the urn back home. From that moment on, disturbing phenomena start to happen in their house. Paul experiences paranormal visions which the others can't see. He didn't have such a good relationship with his father in law and perhaps that is why the lid of the urn disappeared and his father in law returned to haunt Paul about the past. Or Paul is losing his mind ! That's also possible. Who knows? The film won't point that out.

What a terribly original story. As empty as the urn after a while. There's no sign of tension or any scares. A shadow that reflects in a puddle or a mirror and a shape standing in a corner won't scare you silly. The aunt who stays over after the funeral, and retreats in the evening on the coach with a bottle of liquor, looks in the morning more terrifying than any other scene in this film. Even the moments that Lily undergoes a metamorphosis and suddenly looks like a zombie-like bloodthirsty creature couldn't stop me from yawning. So don't be fooled by the movie poster. That poster looks pretty intriguing. That intriguing part is completely lost in this film.

But mostly it's the acting that gives you the creeps. I've seen roles played by a local theater company even better. This was so terribly bad and amateurish. The stupid look Paul had on his face the whole time. The portraying of feelings is so badly done that you're tempted to think that this is a video montage of a teen club that has amused itself making a hobby-horror movie. The friend of Paul is such an annoying nerd who is constantly babbling gibberish. You would like to hit him so hard with something so he would finally shut up. Most hilarious and ridiculous fragment was the moment that someone comes riding along with his jeep together with his girlfriend, and sees Paul lying unconscious on the ground. The change from being helpful to fairly aggressive defensively, was downright sad to see. The conflict that arises afterwards between Paul, Lily, Paul's boss and the totally crazy friend, is too terrible to put into words. Painfully bad.
At one time it seemed as if the entire cast was trying to outdo each other in a contest for "the most ridiculous acting ever" !

There's only one brilliant moment and that's at the final scene. Had the complete movie looked like this excerpt, then it might have been something worth while to watch. Stunning slow-motion images, a hallucinatory scene and a rather surprising end. But the horse had bolted already ...... Good advice. Don't even bother to put on this absurdity.

I would just give it half a star, purely for myself for my stamina!