Do Not Reply (2020)
Film Information
Director: Daniel Woltosz, Walter Woltosz
Writer: Daniel Woltosz, Walter Woltosz
Date Released: October 2, 2020
Cast:
Amanda Arcuri as Chelsea
Ivon Millan as Mia
Courtney Henggeler as Laura
Savannah Kennick as Kristina
Christian Hutcherson as Seth
Curran Walters as Dylan
Eddie Diaz as Officer Ruiz
Jackson Rathbone as Brad
Et. al.
Rating = 2/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
Sadie or Chelsea? meets a random person on an app named VRCowboy. When they start talking, he convinces Sadie to meet him at a Halloween party. There, she meets up with the guy and is given alcohol where she passes out. When she awakes, she realizes that she is chained and trapped in a house with other brainwashed people.
Gore Factor
There is some gore in this film. However, much of the film centers on disturbing aspects which are generally suggestive.
The Grave Review
It becomes very apparent that Brad’s instincts and motive stems from his past and his hatred for his sister. In some sense, he has incestuous feelings for his sister. However, the progression throughout the story is rather slow. For whatever reason, it was really difficult to become engaged in this film.
Amanda Arcuri (Chelsea/Sadie) performs admirably throughout the film. Her portrayal of a desperate and lonely young woman was well-done. Jackson Rathbone (Brad) also gave a respectable performance of the killer/manipulator with his own troubled past life. Collectively, their performances carried the film. However, no fault of their own, the progression of the film and the script just did not keep the story interesting as stated above.
The film touches upon a series of domestic issues including domestic violence, social media abuse and mental health issues. The messages are not subtle either. What the film displays is a series of lonely women who are placed in harms way for taking a chance with a sexual predator on a social media app. In a world where a cell phone could potentially be someone’s life, communication via apps or text is not uncommon. The ending of the movie even has a statistic stating, “The average age of online enticement victims is 15 years old.” – The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. So, if you get nothing else from this film, it is that you should always monitor what your children do on the phone.
Taking all factors into consideration, the film unfortunately did not have enough substance to hold the viewers attention. The concept was interesting, and the message was strong, but the execution of the film was poor.
For the foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives Do Not Reply (2020) two graves out of five graves.
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