Watch Mockingbird For Free

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I don't understand the bad reviews of this movie. It wasn't predictable. The music was great and perfectly timed. The acting was great. Especially Leonard (the clown) who was such a comedic relief and so likable. The ending scene was done so well, I was stunned and had to rewind it so my husband could watch the last 5 minutes with me. Of all the horror movies I've watched (and I almost exclusively watch horror films), this one actually scared me even with the comedic breaks. I think anyone that gives this less than a rating it deserves is either not a horror fan or doesn't appreciate a stunning piece of art like this is. Definitely a 10 and though I don't buy movies often, I'll have to purchase this one!

One of the worst horror movies I've ever seen and actually it probably is the worst horror movie I have ever seen! I was very close to turning it off a couple of times which I never do so I forced myself to keep watching. Thankfully it is not too long. I knew I would not like this from the start based on the filming style which was Blair Witch style with the annoying shaking camera. However I could not believe how bad this was. Nothing is clear on the indoor house scenes and the outdoor scenes with the Clown guy seem totally pointless. The very outset of the movie does show promise for originality but it just goes nowhere and the acting is very poor also. So bad its almost untrue so don't waste your time!

I watched this the other day with two friends and it is honestly the worst horror film I have ever seen. It barely deserves to be placed in the 'horror' category as the only part that was remotely creepy was the guy dressed as a clown, even my friend who is terrified of most films only flinched about once through the entire thing. When we watched the trailer the film looked gripping and relatively original. However, we were highly disappointed. The plot is dull and the ending predictable. My friend actually fell asleep about half way through. I'm writing this review so you do not waste your time and money on this film. Watch something else.

After 8 years of either being unwilling or unable to make The Strangers II (even after massive prodding from fans), Bryan Bertino has emerged with what has to be the oddest entry to date in the Found Footage genre. Excuse all the comparisons to The Strangers in this review --- but the two films are extremely similar in story.When The Strangers was released, I saw it on opening day and it had a huge build-up from a very disturbing trailer. Although it had a lot going for it in the scares department, helped immensely by solid performances from Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, I was ultimately disappointed by it. I savaged it in my review on IMDb as being too thin and derivative and that might not have been entirely fair. It did have its virtuoso moments and a prevailing creepy mood. I just felt it didn't add enough original layers of fear beyond being chased by a bogeyman.Most traditional horror films have some kind of Act One Setup. Though The Strangers attempted this, I never thought it succeeded. I never thought enough time was spent on the characters of Kristin and Jim (Tyler and Speedman) to engage us fully in their terror and fight for survival. Perhaps Tyler and Speedman were just too convincing and thus harder to disengage from when Bertino gave them little to work with, plot-wise.With a storyline this thin (little background on protagonists, no motivation for antagonist, almost immediate intro of A Threat), an almost constant barrage of non-stop terror is required and that is difficult to sustain for a full-length feature. Again, the Strangers tried but, after the one hour mark, largely lost steam. Only two other movies that I've seen have really been able to do this effectively throughout: namely Them (2006) and High Tension (2003). And the fact that The Strangers is almost a direct crib of Them didn't impress me (with the slight change being the age of the antagonists).The good news about Mockingbird is that, even though it doesn't develop it's characters much more than The Strangers, they aren't characters that are critical to develop. Bertino also segments the narrative with frequent title cards that encourage even more disengagement. At times, Bertino seems to be egging us on to --- yes --- "mock" his triumvirate of gullible idiots in Mockingbird. More emotional distance would seem to mean more traditional scares are in store, right? Well, not really.There is The Family, The Woman, and The Clown, all of them kind of pathetic characters in some regard, who basically spend the entire film being terrorized and mentally tortured by an unseen adversary with a lot of time or money on their hands. The premise is simple: accept a free video camera and keep filming, or die. I found that idea a little more interesting, cryptic, and diabolical than the standard stalk-and-slash. I equate real terror more to dread and fear (at the movies anyway) and Bertino nicely controls this with Mockingbird, and he gets fairly inventive with the torments too. The scariest part of The Strangers, to me, was the first forty minutes when the antagonists were virtually off screen. Mockingbird is more like an extended version of that segment, with more palpable tension because the terror is simply spread out in one unrelenting, though low frequency, undercurrent. Unfortunately, it's offset by the fact that it's fairly easy to see where things are going from about the movie's halfway-point. The reason why these victims were chosen becomes a bit too obvious.The ending, too, is vastly anti-climactic and yet another steal from Them. Bertino is well capable of creating ominous moods and surprising us with occasional jump-in-your-seat scares. But with Mockingbird, one senses he needs some fresh inspiration. I have a hard time believing his core cult audience for The Strangers (the people who spend hours writing potential sequel stories and posting them on the message boards here) are going to be able to sit still long enough for Mockingbird to really get rolling and then be happy with the results. If you want in-your-face scares, Mockingbird isn't that kind of fowl at all --- but it's still kind of foul in its own gleefully sadistic way.