I can’t remember the last time I saw a feature length film that screamed “student film” as much as this did. Incompletely shot and edited, and the writing is hilariously on the nose, predictable and dated. Hooh boy. This was a bad one. Garfield goes for it though. All I can say in its favor

I went into this with low expectations. Haven't had much luck with finding genuine horror gems on Amazon, but this was an absolute blast. Perfect schlocky, low-budget choice for Halloween. Not especially scary or unpredictable, but the film is so gleefully in love with 80s horror that that it wins you over. Cinematography, makeup, and production design are top notch relative to the budget. There's a bit of gore FX work involving a man's nether regions that will haunt me for years.

There's a lot to like in The Family Fang. Bateman follows up his stellar performance in The Gift with another scene stealer, and Kidman and Plunkett are both strong. The concept itself is unique. The 'archive' footage is hilarious. But the overall film manages to plod along to an ending that the viewer is not likely all that invested in, without fully exploring the characters or their relationships. The tone is all over the place, and the dialogue, surprisingly, given the writer's Pulitzer background is painfully on the nose.