After moving to a vineyard to start a new life with her husband, a pregnant woman begins to experience terrifying visions.
Visions, directed by Kevin Greutert, is a horror/thriller starring a good collection of well known faces and A-list actors. Isla Fisher, Jim Parsons, Anson Mount, Gillian Jacobs, Eva Longoria, Joanna Cassidy… the casting for this movie was pretty amazing. Most horrors have one, maybe two big names per production. This movie was awash with talent; some of the actors being personal favorites of mine. I guess that is why I was so immensely disappointed.
The fantastic cast could not save this movie from itself. I try to look at the good and the bad in the films that I watch and I like to think I’m objective as I can be. I’m not as critical of a movie with a tiny budget or an unknown cast as I would be with a big budget flick or A-list actors. I also don’t generally like it when people compare one movie to another unless it is used to point out painfully obvious similarities or knock-offs. Lower budget films will often compare themselves to more successful titles as a means of promotion. While this was not the case with Visions, they perhaps should have added the subtitle “We stole our twist from Imprint“.
The movie frustrated me to no end. There were HUGE plot holes all over the place and the source of the “visions” is Fisher’s pregnancy. Her powers of perception are likened to a heightened version of mother’s intuition. The horror aspect of the movie relied almost completely on average special effects and cheap jump scares. I say “cheap” because they were basically slow zooms onto a window or whatever accompanied by tense music and a sudden loud crash or bang. Cheap.
Some people have commented that they found the twist clever, but I found it terribly disappointing. A lot of what happened earlier with the visions suddenly fall into place, but it was, for lack of a better word, stupid. It is all a setup for the grandiose ending that was just an over-acted mess. Think Shyamalan’s Signs. This was exactly that, but with preggo powers instead. It’s hard to explain my distaste without spoiling the twist here, as the entire point of the movie all boils down to just that.
I really wanted to like this movie. I didn’t. Not recommended. Trailer below.
