Too many fans seem to be blown away
... View MoreReally Surprised!
... View MorePlot so thin, it passes unnoticed.
... View MoreFun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
... View MoreFrom the acclaim it got I was expecting more from a Korean horror if it's going to be viewed in the same caliber as A Tale of Two Sisters, as some other reviews have stated. This movie isn't in the same caliber except in budget spent on special effects. Think Amytiville horror. With a tree and sparse dialogue.If you're going to have a movie with limited dialogue, the plot line and characters have to carry the film. This film could have been told quite well in a 30 minute short film concept, 2 hours with a lot of staring at trees and terror scenes that make you not only not scared, but detract in a "What the..." sort of way does not a good horror movie make.Those people who are stating that this film gave them lasting impressions must literally have heart attacks when decent horror films lay it in.
... View MoreAcacia is a slow-moving film; I'll grant any viewer that truth. There are lot of scenes within the film that seem completely unrelated to the tapestry of the film itself, like the expounding of the relationship between two children. The dialogue of the adults is also stilted and questionable, which in turn confuses the viewer and tempts one to just shut the film off.To that I plead: just hang on a little bit longer! Acacia is an odd film, repeating a time-line and waiting until the very end to make sense of everything. It's not a film for people with short attention spans, and that's just stone-cold fact. But by paying attention to the peculiarities of the actors, the ending is made just that much more impactful.When the adopted son "disappears" and the scene opens with the mother, the father, and the father-in-law sitting at the table discussing what to do, it seems odd that one of the comments made is "We can't let him go unreported". That seems like a pretty "der" observation; but in the end, it comes out that the three adults are in on the accidental murder and subsequent cover-up of the adopted-son's death.Suddenly, as the adults all succumb to their own guilt and supernatural influences, the stilted acting and peculiar scene-shoot make sense. The film is shot as a circular progression, rather than the typical linear style that nearly everyone is accustomed to. It's like combining the experiences of watching "The 6th Sense" the first and second time--you're unaware of what's going on, but at the same time you're noting the inconsistencies of character behavior.I enjoyed this film because there wasn't a whole lot of predictability to it, and it lacked the key trademark of most Asian horror films--the freaky noise that the characters hear before they die. I appreciated that, because after "Ju-On" I can't stand freaky noises anymore.
... View MoreI got an advanced copy of the recently released Region 1 disc from Tartan Video, and I was curious about this... I ended up really loving it. Acacia is one of those rare tree-based horror movies, where a tree takes control of something and terrible events happen... What was special about "Acacia" was that it was not only very creepy and eerie, but it also contained some very beautiful and haunting imagery. This movie is really, very close to being perfect. Rent it and watch it open-mindedly, and you will probably like it as much as I did. And if you wanna buy it, by all means do it, because it's completely worth the money.My rating: 9/10 (a minor flaw)
... View More... there's a mixed feeling while watching "Acacia", a family thriller with flirts to the horror genre. Here, a married couple adopts a boy, who they see as the angel to light their lives. But soon they have a child of their own, and their adoptive one isn't happy at all... Cleverly using its shots, this is a superbly framed picture which at times is really creepy without ending up too gratuitous. Editing, however, ends up confusing more than helpful, and even after the final denouement, it's still a bit confusing. But it isn't a bad movie at all, instead it's a solid exercise with some pretty scary stuff. Very interesting indeed, and a proof that there is always an alternate way to shoot this kind of material.
... View More