FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Scott LeBrun Taking place largely inside a car, "Penny Dreadful" is an above average modern fright flick that gets by due to its successful exploitation of common human fears: fear of the dark, fear of enclosed spaces, fear of strangers, what have you. It's often genuinely spooky, creating the kind of overwhelming atmosphere you can usually only get in the most isolated of environments.Rachel Miner stars as Penny Deerborn, a young woman who's had a morbid fear of being inside cars ever since a traumatic childhood accident. Now, her therapist, Orianna Volkes (Mimi Rogers), is driving her to some snowy mountain wilderness. Along the way, they bump into a hitchhiker (Liz Davies) who never utters an audible word. After dropping the person off at their supposed destination, the terror really begins for them, as this mysterious sadist proceeds to put Penny through pure Hell.The screenplay gets no points for originality; it's what director Richard Brandes does with the material that counts. We often feel as if we're trapped inside that car with Penny, and Miner does such a good job of being terrified and panicky, it automatically raises the stress level of the audience as well. Brandes and company do well to keep the killer as mysterious as possible (it is an amusing change of pace to have such a character be played by a woman). Therefore, it's inevitable that the movie loses a little something in the final act when it gives the killer some actual dialogue, and shows their face a little too much."Penny Dreadful" often rests on Miners' capable shoulders, and she makes Penny sympathetic - and eventually proactive enough to not completely grate on some viewers' nerves. Rogers has a warm and practical presence as her travelling companion, and does a fine enough job of playing dead for much of the running time. Mickey Jones and Chad Todhunter co-star as two locals / potential saviours, Davies is creepy as hell as the villain, and the cameo by veteran cult actor Michael Berryman is highly appreciated.Overall, a commendable, solid effort, certain to appeal to genre fans, and complete with a very obvious message of the need for all of us to face our fears head-on.Seven out of 10.

Red_Identity I was actually looking forward to this film... it has a very interesting premise that if done correctly can succeed. While the opening credits were rather good and captured a great mood, I cannot help but feel that this is the definition of a completely mediocre film. It had some interesting scenes and premise, but the execution mostly fails. It is very amateurishly-directed and acted. Rachel Miner wanted to do good, and at times she is, but she completely annoyed me. The beginning scenes with the hitchhiker are actually tense, but things fall apart pretty quickly. Sad, because the film at least has an established tone, but ultimately, I cannot say anything but skip it (despite some worthy scenes).

HumanoidOfFlesh Penny,a young woman traumatized by a childhood auto accident that killed her parents,accompanies her therapist on a road trip back to the scene of the accident as part of her therapy to overcome her fear of cars.But when the two women accidentally cross paths with a dark and mysterious Hitch Hiker on a lonely stretch of mountain highway an attempt at healing suddenly takes a terrifying detour into a horrific life-and-death struggle with a ruthless,deranged killer bent on preying upon Penny's worst fears."Penny Dreadful" is an unremarkable slasher with tons of quick cuts masquerading as scares.The acting is solid and it's always nice to see Michael Berryman in a small cameo,unfortunately the killings are laughable and there is not much blood and gore.Still "Penny Dreadful" is better than Richard Brandes horrible vampire flick "Out for Blood".5 out of 10.

The_Void If you make a film with the word 'dreadful' in the title, and your film is dreadful, you've really got to expect that a lot of the reviews for the film will express that very adjective; and I really cant think of a better way to describe 'Penny Dreadful' than the second word of its title. I'm all for horror films that try to be original and don't follow an obvious and often done plot line. As a result, a film about someone with a phobia of cars actually sounded promising; but unfortunately the director has opted to pepper the film with clichés, which cancels out any originality. The plot focuses on two women travelling through America in a car. One of them is Penny Deerborn; a young girl who suffers from the fear or cars, and the other is Orianna Volkes - her psychologist. Rather than simply prescribe a bike, Orianna decides that the best medicine for someone who is afraid of cars is to travel many miles to the place where her mother died, in a car. Brilliant! Naturally this pea-brained scheme goes wrong, and young Penny ends up in a nightmarish situation.The majority of this film involves the young girl trapped inside the car. The idea of someone being trapped and intensely frightened could easily lead to a good horror movie; but here it just isn't interesting and the result of that is that we simply don't care about anything that is happening in the film. The script doesn't allow either of the central characters to be made interesting and when the bulk of the film relies on one of them in particular; that really is a large problem. Rachel Miner takes the lead role and actually doesn't do too badly with the material she's given, and starring opposite her is Mimi Rogers as the psychologist with the silly plan, who also does OK. The film doesn't have a lot of variety in terms of the locations used; most of it takes place inside a car anyway. The film really just drones on for most of the running time and it all boils down to a stupid ending. Overall, this is really just a missed opportunity as with better handling, Penny Dreadful could at least have been decent. Oh well...just add it to the long list of dull modern horror films instead.