I am the worst person to judge a book or a film by its cover. More often than not, I have a rough idea of what the film is all about, whether I like it or not. I have a ton of films that I have to review, and most of the time I end up judging the films before watching them. This does not change my review in any way, only the excitement I have when getting ready to watch it.
This past week I received the film Beautiful Prison to review from my friends at Midnight Releasing. The cover of the film made it seem quite dull, and so I kept pushing it further down my to-do list. Finally I wasn’t able to delay it further so I went ahead and watched it, and I was shocked at how much I actually enjoyed it. Thank you guys for sending it my way.
In this film, Ben works at a plant with his best friend Jerry. At the plant, Ben’s brother in law is his supervisor, and he always makes excuses for Ben when he gets lost in his thoughts and causes accidents on the job. Due to his abusive father, Ben is slower than most people. One day, Jerry gets ben’s job and is fired instead. Now, Ben is losing control and is having a hard time with the idea of going to work without Jerry.
Filled with panic, he gets involved with an argument with the brother-in-law he stays with. After the argument, he gets hit by a car while crossing the street. He is taken to the hospital and that’s when things get bizarre. Ben starts seeing peculiar people and strange things begin to happen to his body not long after the car crash. Soon, he understands that he is in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and has to fight for his life. That is when he realizes that he actually is in a coma and everything has been a figment of his imagination. Instead of waking up, he imagines his ideal fantasy where he actually gets the girl.
The first thought that crossed my mind when I saw the cover of Beautiful Prison was that it would revolve around a psychologically disturbed individual and his dark past. I was completely off the mark. In fact, it was a supernatural thriller involving a man who isn’t very sharp but is given an opportunity to make the most out of his situation.
Kailin Stockwell, who played the lead, did a wonderful job in the movie. Stockwell is extremely polite and friendly in real life. He absolutely nails his disguise during the initial scenes. But then he switches and morphs into a very strong-willed man who takes charge of his situation. And it shows that he had the skills to back it up. The rest of the cast also did a great job and they go head to head with Stockwell, yet their characters are rather simplistic in comparison.
The movie’s story is engaging and original. There is a lot of confusion between the real world and the dream world, which can be interesting but at times tedious. If the writing was a bit more polished, it could improve the film significantly. The movie is also filled with blood. It does not excel in gore but there’s blood spraying everywhere. The effects and demons are also wonderful. My greatest issue with the movie is the lack of cool deaths. To be more accurate, there are no deaths which shifts the film’s perspective from horror to thriller. In layman’s Beautiful Prison is a brilliant horror-thriller. The film is shot beautifully, tells an amazing story, and at the same time fails to execute the plot. Anytime you get a chance, I urge you to watch this.
To watch more movies like BEAUTIFUL PRISON (2016) visit hurawatch.
To watch more movies like BEAUTIFUL PRISON (2016) visit hurawatch.