18 reviews
Lots of talking about art and philosophy. Each character babbles about something art related and then something spooky happens. That's it...I think.
Some of the scenes at the beginning reminded me of a David Lynch film, but it never went anywhere and was far less engaging.
For a 70 minute film I found myself checking the clock often, patiently waiting for a monologues to stop so something strange would happen or a point could be made.
Some of the scenes at the beginning reminded me of a David Lynch film, but it never went anywhere and was far less engaging.
For a 70 minute film I found myself checking the clock often, patiently waiting for a monologues to stop so something strange would happen or a point could be made.
- jkkuppler-135-22372
- Jul 31, 2022
- Permalink
Had to turn on subtitles.. the talking was whisper quiet compared to the blaring, speaker destroying soundtrack.
Some of the stories worked well... others were a bit long winded with no real payoff, nicely linked through out though.
Kinda spooky, mostly boring.
Some of the stories worked well... others were a bit long winded with no real payoff, nicely linked through out though.
Kinda spooky, mostly boring.
- warehousereviews
- Aug 2, 2022
- Permalink
I feel like a lot of people are going to try to compare Spider One's directing/writing to Rob Zombie's directing/writing, but I don't think that's necessary. Allegoria is Spider One's first full length movie. Allegoria wasn't the worst thing I've ever seen, but it definitely wasn't great either. I managed to watch the entire thing, hoping that maybe it would get better. It didn't. The writing was pretty light on plot, horror, and excitement. I can imagine Spider One sitting at a table as he was writing this, thinking how every little tale was awesome and scary....but really, the stories didn't have much happening. At all. There were nice little ties between the stories with the characters, but that's about it. Really weak writing. Each story had a shred of horror to it, but barely. The ideas didn't feel fleshed out, the stories felt unfinished, and there was a severe lack of horror to the whole thing. The acting wasn't terrible, I didn't feel like anybody in particular did a bad job. The camera work was fine. The music felt a little trite, lots of intense piano key slams indicating you're supposed to feel terror or suspense. But I never felt terror or suspense. Overall, my biggest disappointment with the movie is that basically nothing happened throughout the whole movie. Just several short stories, one after the other, where some characters do some things and talk for 5-10 minutes, and then it's on to the next. Yawn.
- hippyhalo22
- Jul 31, 2022
- Permalink
This is supposed to be (I think) about a bunch of pretentious artists. But what they are saying about art is at the level of what a high school student might tell you. So they are obnoxious and annoying rather than pretentious. I was just happy to see each and every person in this movie die.
Also I agree with the reviewer speaking about the sound quality. Had to turn the volume up almost as loud as my system would go to hear any of the whisper quiet dialogue and then turn it almost all the way down again at ANY sound effect (yes, that includes simple things like closing a door).
Also I agree with the reviewer speaking about the sound quality. Had to turn the volume up almost as loud as my system would go to hear any of the whisper quiet dialogue and then turn it almost all the way down again at ANY sound effect (yes, that includes simple things like closing a door).
- clk264-649-716463
- Aug 2, 2022
- Permalink
Some decent effects in a movie thats both boring and badly made. The stories "twists" rarely makes sense. And it has this artsy fartsy feel, like the filmmaker thought he was contributing to high art. Plus the sound is very uneven, sometimes you cant hear anything only for the volume to suddenly go bursting high.
Again a quote like "Just because you can make a movie doesnt mean you should" makes sense.
Dissapointing.
Again a quote like "Just because you can make a movie doesnt mean you should" makes sense.
Dissapointing.
- rolfosterberg
- Aug 5, 2022
- Permalink
I was watching the movie and about a third of the way through I wondered why I was watching an anthology movie like VHS. A bunch of seemingly random stories connected by a single thread.
It's not a cohesive film from start to finish. Which is a shame because the actors were all really quite good. Sadly it's a lot of monologuing back and forth.
Remember in Black Mass when one person would litteraly speak for five miny without anyone else talking even though it was supposed to be a conversation. It's like that but not quite so bad.
Hope they do better in the future. Tons of potential here.
It's not a cohesive film from start to finish. Which is a shame because the actors were all really quite good. Sadly it's a lot of monologuing back and forth.
Remember in Black Mass when one person would litteraly speak for five miny without anyone else talking even though it was supposed to be a conversation. It's like that but not quite so bad.
Hope they do better in the future. Tons of potential here.
Well idk. The movie's name is allegoria, but the only meaning I can currently think of behind this is the Spider One trying to show what art can mean in the way of a weird, one could say "crappy" (- me, I said that) film, almost ironically suggesting that, even though this is a poor watch, it is still art? To give credit here, it does end in 1 hour so isn't taxing to watch, but doesn't have a 'scare,' more of the same over-used sequences of the monster popping up behind people in different camera angles. However, the last of these 'tales' implements exceptional camera work and some brilliant acting from the character of Brody, other than that there is no stand out factor, for me, about this film.
- mchapple-52317
- Sep 24, 2022
- Permalink
This is a movie that I didn't know anything about until I saw it on Shudder. It was under their original/exclusives. I added it to my list due to the poster since it creeped me out. On top of that, I saw that it only ran over an hour. I decided to make this my 2022 film for the week since it is a bit busier with my feature as well.
Synopsis: a group of artists' lives become unwittingly entangled as their obsessions and insecurities manifest monsters, demons and death.
We get an anthology of sorts with five stories. It starts with seeing Robert Anderson Wright (John Ennis). He's looking in a mirror, getting himself prepped. He's teaching an acting class. We learn that that it is a small group that are accepted so there are only 5 students. One of them is Brody (Krsy Fox). Robert sees something in her and calls her on stage. It has a turn when he belittles her, but he doesn't get the response he was expecting.
The next one is a painter of Marcus Muller (Bryce Johnson). He's struggling to finish his painting and it doesn't help that his agent, Benny (Johnny Hawkes), keeps bothering him. This also gives us the first thread that all these are connected. Marcus is seeing Brody. She also calls him, but he is short with her. He has more pressing things when he's visited by an entity.
It then shifts to Eddie Park (Edward Hong) who is writing a screenplay about a killer named The Whistler, who might be more real than he imagined. There is also John (Adam Busch) who goes on a date with Ivy (Scout Taylor-Compton). She seems a bit wild for him and it is awkward. There is much more in store for both. The last story shows us Hope (Josephine Chang) who lives with Brody. The former goes to band practice where one of her mates talks of a grouping of notes that can drive someone insane. He just hasn't discovered the order yet.
That's where I'm going to leave my recap. I think that gives you an idea of the stories we are getting here and introduces the major players without going into spoilers. Now since this is an anthology, let me break down the set up with that. This is done by the same team so it flows that way. It looks like the musician Spider One wrote and directed this. I knew him as the lead singer of the band Powerman 5000. What I didn't know until settling in is that he's the younger brother of Rob Zombie. With that set up, I like how all these stories are connected to others in subtle ways. That is something that I'm a fan of when it can be done in an anthology.
To continue to delve more into this, we also have the idea of connected tissue of artists in the all the stories. This can include an actress with Brody, a painter in Marcus, a writer with Eddie, a sculptor in Ivy and a musician with Hope. They are the main characters of each story. Some of them are also connected in other ways. Brody is dating Marcus. Brody and Hope are watching a movie that Eddie wrote. Ivy is Marcus' ex-girlfriend. I should also point out that Brody and Hope are roommates. Seeing little things in each of the stories helped keep my interest. It also helps to show when each story is taking place regarding others. This isn't linear and we jump before as well as after some things.
With using artists as the leads in each of the stories, we delve into the insecurities as the synopsis said. Brody questions if she is good enough for the class she was accepted into. Marcus is arrogant and thinks what he's doing is more important than Brody, but there is this lingering thing that what he's doing isn't good. He doesn't want to sell out. Eddie is hard on himself and inside thinks what he's writing has holes. Ivy is a bit different from the rest, but I like what they do with her. Hope is also interesting, as hers is wanting to discover what the guitarist in the group claims. I like that there is something under the surface and we are seeing manifestations of them as well.
Now I do want to shift over a negative though. Seeing the short runtime, I was excited. I think that it becomes a problem now that I've seen this. There are too many shorts and it eats up the time. What I mean is that when we get to the best part of each, it cuts away. In doing that, I think it pulls its punches as I want more. When we see Brody in class, I want to see the aftermath. Same with Marcus. What I will say though is that I think Eddie's, Ivy's and Hope's stories work as they should. I almost think that some of them should be moved around to allow the ones that cut short to be fleshed out a bit more. Without spoiling, I do think that Hope's needs to stay later for story reasons. Just an issue I had with how things are presented.
That's about what the extent of what I needed to say for the story so I'll go to the acting. Ennis is good in his role as Robert who is our acting teacher. I liked what they do with Fox's character of Brody. I enjoy how she fits into everything. Johnson is solid as the arrogant painter Marcus. Hong fit his role as Eddy. I'm not sure why the Internet Movie Database isn't acknowledging Taylor-Compton as Ivy, but she has a seductive nature about her that worked. Busch plays this awkward guy opposite her well. Other than that, I thought that Chang was good along with her bandmates. Special credit to Tyrone Oliver, Adam Marcinowski and Matt McJunkins who played different 'monsters' in the movie as well. Oliver and McJunkins play actual ones where Marcinowski's size makes him work. He also brings character to the role. The acting in general was fine.
Then the last things to go into would be with the filmmaking. I'd say that this was shot well. The cinematography was well done and I had no issues there. At times, it feels like we are getting filmed stage plays with the use of lighting and shadows. That was interesting. There is some interesting things with the effects as well. There is a Paint Monster that was terrifying. We get good practical stuff there as well as with a possessed person and an entity known as The Something. All that was well done in my opinion and I had no issues here. Other than that, I thought that the soundtrack fit for what was needed. It shines in the last story as Hope tries to find the right order of the notes. The song that she sings is cheesy and it made me laugh. The sound design adds elements as well.
In conclusion, I think that this is a decent anthology. I like that this is done by one team so it flows seamless. There is also a bit more underneath that you can appreciate or just watch it on surface level which is creepy. Using the idea of artists was interesting. My problem though is that we have too many stories without fleshing a couple of them out properly. That made it feel like it was pulling its punches. Still worth a watch at least once in my opinion though.
My Rating: 6.5 out of 10.
Synopsis: a group of artists' lives become unwittingly entangled as their obsessions and insecurities manifest monsters, demons and death.
We get an anthology of sorts with five stories. It starts with seeing Robert Anderson Wright (John Ennis). He's looking in a mirror, getting himself prepped. He's teaching an acting class. We learn that that it is a small group that are accepted so there are only 5 students. One of them is Brody (Krsy Fox). Robert sees something in her and calls her on stage. It has a turn when he belittles her, but he doesn't get the response he was expecting.
The next one is a painter of Marcus Muller (Bryce Johnson). He's struggling to finish his painting and it doesn't help that his agent, Benny (Johnny Hawkes), keeps bothering him. This also gives us the first thread that all these are connected. Marcus is seeing Brody. She also calls him, but he is short with her. He has more pressing things when he's visited by an entity.
It then shifts to Eddie Park (Edward Hong) who is writing a screenplay about a killer named The Whistler, who might be more real than he imagined. There is also John (Adam Busch) who goes on a date with Ivy (Scout Taylor-Compton). She seems a bit wild for him and it is awkward. There is much more in store for both. The last story shows us Hope (Josephine Chang) who lives with Brody. The former goes to band practice where one of her mates talks of a grouping of notes that can drive someone insane. He just hasn't discovered the order yet.
That's where I'm going to leave my recap. I think that gives you an idea of the stories we are getting here and introduces the major players without going into spoilers. Now since this is an anthology, let me break down the set up with that. This is done by the same team so it flows that way. It looks like the musician Spider One wrote and directed this. I knew him as the lead singer of the band Powerman 5000. What I didn't know until settling in is that he's the younger brother of Rob Zombie. With that set up, I like how all these stories are connected to others in subtle ways. That is something that I'm a fan of when it can be done in an anthology.
To continue to delve more into this, we also have the idea of connected tissue of artists in the all the stories. This can include an actress with Brody, a painter in Marcus, a writer with Eddie, a sculptor in Ivy and a musician with Hope. They are the main characters of each story. Some of them are also connected in other ways. Brody is dating Marcus. Brody and Hope are watching a movie that Eddie wrote. Ivy is Marcus' ex-girlfriend. I should also point out that Brody and Hope are roommates. Seeing little things in each of the stories helped keep my interest. It also helps to show when each story is taking place regarding others. This isn't linear and we jump before as well as after some things.
With using artists as the leads in each of the stories, we delve into the insecurities as the synopsis said. Brody questions if she is good enough for the class she was accepted into. Marcus is arrogant and thinks what he's doing is more important than Brody, but there is this lingering thing that what he's doing isn't good. He doesn't want to sell out. Eddie is hard on himself and inside thinks what he's writing has holes. Ivy is a bit different from the rest, but I like what they do with her. Hope is also interesting, as hers is wanting to discover what the guitarist in the group claims. I like that there is something under the surface and we are seeing manifestations of them as well.
Now I do want to shift over a negative though. Seeing the short runtime, I was excited. I think that it becomes a problem now that I've seen this. There are too many shorts and it eats up the time. What I mean is that when we get to the best part of each, it cuts away. In doing that, I think it pulls its punches as I want more. When we see Brody in class, I want to see the aftermath. Same with Marcus. What I will say though is that I think Eddie's, Ivy's and Hope's stories work as they should. I almost think that some of them should be moved around to allow the ones that cut short to be fleshed out a bit more. Without spoiling, I do think that Hope's needs to stay later for story reasons. Just an issue I had with how things are presented.
That's about what the extent of what I needed to say for the story so I'll go to the acting. Ennis is good in his role as Robert who is our acting teacher. I liked what they do with Fox's character of Brody. I enjoy how she fits into everything. Johnson is solid as the arrogant painter Marcus. Hong fit his role as Eddy. I'm not sure why the Internet Movie Database isn't acknowledging Taylor-Compton as Ivy, but she has a seductive nature about her that worked. Busch plays this awkward guy opposite her well. Other than that, I thought that Chang was good along with her bandmates. Special credit to Tyrone Oliver, Adam Marcinowski and Matt McJunkins who played different 'monsters' in the movie as well. Oliver and McJunkins play actual ones where Marcinowski's size makes him work. He also brings character to the role. The acting in general was fine.
Then the last things to go into would be with the filmmaking. I'd say that this was shot well. The cinematography was well done and I had no issues there. At times, it feels like we are getting filmed stage plays with the use of lighting and shadows. That was interesting. There is some interesting things with the effects as well. There is a Paint Monster that was terrifying. We get good practical stuff there as well as with a possessed person and an entity known as The Something. All that was well done in my opinion and I had no issues here. Other than that, I thought that the soundtrack fit for what was needed. It shines in the last story as Hope tries to find the right order of the notes. The song that she sings is cheesy and it made me laugh. The sound design adds elements as well.
In conclusion, I think that this is a decent anthology. I like that this is done by one team so it flows seamless. There is also a bit more underneath that you can appreciate or just watch it on surface level which is creepy. Using the idea of artists was interesting. My problem though is that we have too many stories without fleshing a couple of them out properly. That made it feel like it was pulling its punches. Still worth a watch at least once in my opinion though.
My Rating: 6.5 out of 10.
- Reviews_of_the_Dead
- Sep 22, 2022
- Permalink
Haven't seen it, but the makers need to be applauded for one thing - there is no flood of 10/10 spam shill comments from cast and crew members. Thus they show a level of dignity and integrity completely absent in most of their peers. Thankyou.
- AnusPresley
- Aug 1, 2022
- Permalink
I am honestly flabbergasted by the bad reviews here.
I don't understand. I watch TONS of indy horror movies and this one is just incredible.
Who the hell is Spider One and how come he is not doing the next Evil Dead?
Completely screwed up, completely original and unique, perfectly acted and executed.
Someone here said the acting was bad?.... I mean there is at least 3-4 notable performances.
... and some of the sound design.... just wow.
My new favorite horror movie in a long, long time. Bravo!
I don't understand. I watch TONS of indy horror movies and this one is just incredible.
Who the hell is Spider One and how come he is not doing the next Evil Dead?
Completely screwed up, completely original and unique, perfectly acted and executed.
Someone here said the acting was bad?.... I mean there is at least 3-4 notable performances.
... and some of the sound design.... just wow.
My new favorite horror movie in a long, long time. Bravo!
- martlarrivee
- Aug 8, 2022
- Permalink
Allegoria (2022) is a new release I recently watched on Shudder. The storyline follows a group of individuals whose lives are indirectly tied together. Their obsessions are about to manifest demons in or around them that will change their lives forever and flip their lives upside down.
This movie is written and directed by Spider One in his directorial debut and stars John Ennis (Eight Legged Freaks), Krsy Fox (Underworld: Evolution), Tyler Bryan (Frank), Johnny Hawkes (Zombie Strippers) and Bryce Johnson (Darkness Rising).
This movie has a fun soundtrack that reminded me of Clockwork Orange. The opening scene with the teacher was tremendous. I adored the makeup, mask and attire of the burned demon. Very well done. The movie is more intricate and smarter than you may anticipate. The writing is clever and does a great job tying all the short stories together and the end is fairly smart.
Overall this is a slightly above average addition to the horror genre that's worth a viewing. I would score this a 6-6.5/10 and recommend seeing it once.
This movie is written and directed by Spider One in his directorial debut and stars John Ennis (Eight Legged Freaks), Krsy Fox (Underworld: Evolution), Tyler Bryan (Frank), Johnny Hawkes (Zombie Strippers) and Bryce Johnson (Darkness Rising).
This movie has a fun soundtrack that reminded me of Clockwork Orange. The opening scene with the teacher was tremendous. I adored the makeup, mask and attire of the burned demon. Very well done. The movie is more intricate and smarter than you may anticipate. The writing is clever and does a great job tying all the short stories together and the end is fairly smart.
Overall this is a slightly above average addition to the horror genre that's worth a viewing. I would score this a 6-6.5/10 and recommend seeing it once.
- kevin_robbins
- Aug 10, 2022
- Permalink
Right, well I was lured into watching the 2022 horror movie "Allegoria" because of the interesting cover. Well, that and the fact that it was a horror movie that I hadn't already seen.
Had I known that this was an artsy horror anthology, I would have avoided it like the plague. I am not overly much a fan of horror anthologies, as they more often than not tend to be questionable and dubious. And that was also the case with "Allegoria". Yeah, it wasn't a great viewing experience. The short stories, or segments, that make up "Allegoria" were not particularly entertaining. And I have to say that I found it to be a bit over-the-top, as writer and director Spider One (and that name by itself is a warning signal, isn't it?) just tried to be too avantgarde with these short stories.
Something that spoke in favor of "Allegoria", was the fact that I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble. That is something I do enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie. The acting performances in "Allegoria" were good enough, despite the fact that the movie as a whole failed to really entertain me.
The special effects in "Allegoria" were actually good, and that did count for something. But it was hardly enough to make up for the shortcomings of the story narratives.
This is definitely not something I would recommend to horror fans. Nor is it something that I will ever return to watch a second time.
My rating of "Allegoria" lands on a very generous three out of ten stars.
Had I known that this was an artsy horror anthology, I would have avoided it like the plague. I am not overly much a fan of horror anthologies, as they more often than not tend to be questionable and dubious. And that was also the case with "Allegoria". Yeah, it wasn't a great viewing experience. The short stories, or segments, that make up "Allegoria" were not particularly entertaining. And I have to say that I found it to be a bit over-the-top, as writer and director Spider One (and that name by itself is a warning signal, isn't it?) just tried to be too avantgarde with these short stories.
Something that spoke in favor of "Allegoria", was the fact that I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble. That is something I do enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie. The acting performances in "Allegoria" were good enough, despite the fact that the movie as a whole failed to really entertain me.
The special effects in "Allegoria" were actually good, and that did count for something. But it was hardly enough to make up for the shortcomings of the story narratives.
This is definitely not something I would recommend to horror fans. Nor is it something that I will ever return to watch a second time.
My rating of "Allegoria" lands on a very generous three out of ten stars.
- paul_haakonsen
- Jan 4, 2024
- Permalink
- nogodnomasters
- Sep 3, 2022
- Permalink
Please don't get influenced by my rating...... it's just....... it's just..... a guilty pleasure 😁. Artistically the film would have been much better. But the concept really makes you think........ Deep! Watch at your own risk! But let me tell you this......... The title of the film plays a lot to the premise ! Good luck! 👍
- aob_brctor87
- Mar 6, 2024
- Permalink
I enjoyed watching this movie. It's art inside art ok. No lagging just got to the point. Waaaawaaaa big baby was awesome. T & A perfect amount I swear she only had one hard nipple while being possessed lol. Loved the 80's take on the Big baby film, there was a laker girl running running running. The film doesn't want you to take it seriously so chill grab some snacks and watch. I can't freaking wait to see what else Spider 🕷 sploots out! The bad reviews are probably the same people that get off on watching romcoms and can't handle the sight of blood RunrabbitRUN back to your safe "non heavy"(one reviewer said it was heavy, uhmmmm) moopies and leave the art horror to the people that appreciate it. Damn bloodflakes. 😝