Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

miriad From the acclaim it got I was expecting more from a Korean horror if it's going to be viewed in the same caliber as A Tale of Two Sisters, as some other reviews have stated. This movie isn't in the same caliber except in budget spent on special effects. Think Amytiville horror. With a tree and sparse dialogue.If you're going to have a movie with limited dialogue, the plot line and characters have to carry the film. This film could have been told quite well in a 30 minute short film concept, 2 hours with a lot of staring at trees and terror scenes that make you not only not scared, but detract in a "What the..." sort of way does not a good horror movie make.Those people who are stating that this film gave them lasting impressions must literally have heart attacks when decent horror films lay it in.

gambits_cheri Acacia is a slow-moving film; I'll grant any viewer that truth. There are lot of scenes within the film that seem completely unrelated to the tapestry of the film itself, like the expounding of the relationship between two children. The dialogue of the adults is also stilted and questionable, which in turn confuses the viewer and tempts one to just shut the film off.To that I plead: just hang on a little bit longer! Acacia is an odd film, repeating a time-line and waiting until the very end to make sense of everything. It's not a film for people with short attention spans, and that's just stone-cold fact. But by paying attention to the peculiarities of the actors, the ending is made just that much more impactful.When the adopted son "disappears" and the scene opens with the mother, the father, and the father-in-law sitting at the table discussing what to do, it seems odd that one of the comments made is "We can't let him go unreported". That seems like a pretty "der" observation; but in the end, it comes out that the three adults are in on the accidental murder and subsequent cover-up of the adopted-son's death.Suddenly, as the adults all succumb to their own guilt and supernatural influences, the stilted acting and peculiar scene-shoot make sense. The film is shot as a circular progression, rather than the typical linear style that nearly everyone is accustomed to. It's like combining the experiences of watching "The 6th Sense" the first and second time--you're unaware of what's going on, but at the same time you're noting the inconsistencies of character behavior.I enjoyed this film because there wasn't a whole lot of predictability to it, and it lacked the key trademark of most Asian horror films--the freaky noise that the characters hear before they die. I appreciated that, because after "Ju-On" I can't stand freaky noises anymore.

BennyM This movie has an original premise, but ultimately winds up a little too confused about where it wanted to go. The storytelling, which starts off with fine, mood-filled, dwelling shots, veers off into a style more reminiscent of standard psycho-thrillers as the conclusion draws near. One scene in particular (*SPOILER*: the death of the father-in-law) jars with the visual style right up to this point and seems to mark a clear break in the narrative. The first hour is absolutely riveting, though, and I'll certainly want to see other films by Ki-Hyung Park.

Dockelektro ... there's a mixed feeling while watching "Acacia", a family thriller with flirts to the horror genre. Here, a married couple adopts a boy, who they see as the angel to light their lives. But soon they have a child of their own, and their adoptive one isn't happy at all... Cleverly using its shots, this is a superbly framed picture which at times is really creepy without ending up too gratuitous. Editing, however, ends up confusing more than helpful, and even after the final denouement, it's still a bit confusing. But it isn't a bad movie at all, instead it's a solid exercise with some pretty scary stuff. Very interesting indeed, and a proof that there is always an alternate way to shoot this kind of material.