Pretty Good

Great Film overall

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Now when i say "cult movie", i mean a literal cult movie, that is, a movie about cults. i found the depiction of the cult leader and his subjects to be very realistic and educational. i've had some experience deprogramming some of these type of people and let me tell you this movie gets the facts right. The leader does not come across as some raving lunatic, but rather as a friendly father figure or surrogate. Very well made movie with some great performances, particularly from the cult leader and the young women playing the cult members that have been indoctrinated.

When a friend goes missing, investigative reporter Mary (Christa B. Allen) springs into action and travels to Idyllwild, California and joins a cult she suspects her friend was a part of. The cult is run by Brent (Derek Smith) and has a bunch of young girls working there. Mary has to surrender her cell phone and ....this is just too painful to go on because you know the formula.This is a magical film where you know what happens before it does, except for that one thing. The actors were saving their ability for the next film and opted to phone it in on this one. This could have been a Lifetime, made for TV film, but it wasn't. It just looked that bad.Guide: No swearing. Implied sex. No nudity, Some bra/panties from behind.

My initial review for 'One of Us' was deleted for being too harsh. I suppose I just really wanted to get across how much I did not like this film. I will now rewrite my review and simply present the facts, whilst trying not to sound overly hate-filled. Here we go.'One of Us' is flawed in many areas. The biggest one would have to be the acting. The acting is bad from almost the entire cast, however the most important role they got wrong was that of 'Brent' played by Derek Smith. This role really needed someone with some genuine charisma to sell the story that they are trying to tell. Smith simply didn't have it sadly.The next flaw lies in the dialogue the actors have to work with. It's not written well. It's clunky and unnatural almost throughout the entire film. They just needed someone to come in with some expertise and strengthen the script up a bit.The final problem lies in the blandness of the whole experience. I've seen children's movies with more violence than this film gets away with. Anything that does happen is off screen. Were the sensors on them that heavily that they felt this was necessary, or was this an creative decision on the director's part? Either way it makes for a very dull experience.It's tough to find any positives worth mentioning for 'One of Us'. It's not a film that I could recommend spending your time or money on.

This was a nice surprise for a late night TV fright flick. While One of Us is clearly a psychological horror movie at heart, it's not dedicated to making the cheesiest, campiest, kill-fest imaginable. In fact, it seems to be trying to do something different. Speaking of camp, the director really seemed to take pride in capturing the atmosphere of the idyllic mountain setting. I'm not sure of the techniques, but the outdoor naturally lit shots were gorgeous. They had me kind of convinced, or at least intrigued, by the promise of a retreat away from the stresses of modern society…and the psychology that might drive someone to let a charismatic creeper take the wheel. Of course creepy cults can't last, and these women in the woods have to fight to stay alive, and while this film might not please the slasher film purists, it offers a bit of a stylish spin on the late night psycho creep show.