Very well executed

Truly Dreadful Film

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Fantastic!

Saw 'Stickman', being fond of horror regardless of budget (even if not my favourite genre) and being intrigued somewhat by the idea. Being behind on my film watching and reviewing, with a long to watch and review list that keeps getting longer, it took me a while to get round to watching and reviewing it.Giving 'Stickman' a fair chance with being interest and apprehension, it turned out to be far better than expected. Won't say that 'Stickman' is a great film because it isn't and the potential, while not wasted, is not fully lived up to. Considering the large number of films seen recently being mediocre and less and wasting potential, was expecting worse and was relieved that while wanting in a fair few areas it was actually one of my better recent low-budget viewings.'Stickman' started off quite well, the first twenty minutes or so starting the film off on a promising, unsettling and atmospheric note that really does intrigue. Production values did have some eeriness and nowhere near as cheap as expected, and the music, which not the most memorable in the world, didn't detract from the atmosphere. The setting is effectively spooky and some of the lead acting at times was not bad. There are spooky and suspenseful moments and it isn't dull. The direction doesn't feel phoned in and the storytelling in the first half does intrigue.However, the story was severely wanting in the second half after starting off promisingly. It is very disjointed and after the promising start the final third especially loses atmosphere, one loses interest and things start to not make sense. Too much of the film is vague and doesn't explore some elements and story strands enough, some dropped soon after being introduced, go nowhere or serve much point.Ending is unsatisfying, on top of feeling hasty there are too many loose ends hanging in the air. Got the sense that the writers didn't know how to end the film. Would have liked much more tension and suspense, scares could have been more consistent and some weren't surprising enough. Found too the script to lack natural flow and with a fair bit of cheese going on, and the characters bland with some adopting some annoying and not always logical decision making. The support acting is even more problematic than the second half's storytelling, at best it was poor and too often terrible.Overall, better than expected but not great still. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Made for TV film. Stickman attacks its victims in their sleep like Freddy without a voice or personality. It is an evil treant that can be summoned by reading a poem. It can be kept at bay by drawing a picture of it prior to bedtime. Emma (Hayley Law) is in a mental institution as she is blamed for the death of her sister and mother.The fun continues when Emma is released to a half way house. The production is typical in quality of SyFy films. Not a bad horror film, but not one that will stick out.

Suffering from a series of strange dreams, a woman with a history involving a strange figure that forces her into bizarre behavioral patterns finds the creature is loose and stalking her friends forcing them to band together to find a way to stop it once and for all.This ended up being quite the decent and enjoyable effort. What really makes this one seem enjoyable is the fact that there's a reasonably enjoyable and sensible backstory for the creature at the core of this one. Taking into account the main poem at the heart of the creatures' origins, this setup is quite fun and manages to bring out a rather enjoyable time here when giving all the different guidelines for his resurrection as well as the rather complex rules that are featured here for his emergence makes for a generally effective creature. The amount of time he has here isn't that bad, either, giving this one a really strong overall setup which generates some solid stalking scenes, from the opening dream sequence on the bus to the first encounter in the sanitarium and the incredibly chillings attacks at the foster home that sets the whole plot in motion. Other big scenes include the creature attacking the couple in their car driving along the freeway which offers all the usual fun of trying to keep the creature from breaking through and leading into the stellar crash while the second half has some fun with the group in the asylum looking for answers to the creature as it begins knocking the group off throughout the hallways which give this a kind of rather exciting kick during this section of the film. With some fine encounters surrounding this with some fun in the convenience store and the group out in the woods as there are some decent enough times here with the creature resulting in some solid gory kills throughout here. These hold the film up over its rather blatant flaws along the way. The most apparent issue here is the fact that there's just no reason here for the connection to the poem and the creatures' release, as this is severely underwhelming and really seems quite unlikely. This is the easiest problem to fix and doesn't really deserve to be as big an issue as it is due to the central premise being it as the notion works, but the whole concept is a big enough issue. As well, there are some big issues with how long it takes for the creature to become known to the group as this has some pretty lame reasons to keep them from believing her even after witnessing an attack that she couldn't be responsible so this one does have an issue there. Along with some spotty CGI for the creature, these here hold this one down.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.

RELEASED TO TV IN 2017 and written & directed by Sheldon Wilson, "Stickman" chronicles events when a 7 year-old girl is accused of murdering her mother & sister and put in a mental institution. She's finally released ten years later and finds residence at a halfway house for girls. Unfortunately, the evil spirit that slew her kin is on the loose again and threatens all the girls at her new residence. A few of them travel back to the hospital to find a way to put an end to the creature's reign of terror.There's a lot of good in this flick: The filmmaking is proficient for a TV-budgeted movie; the locations are decent, which include the asylum, the transitional home, and points in between, like the town and the woods (there are several cool shots of a truss bridge in the dark); it's nice to have a black protagonist for a change (Hayley Law); the five other girls at the halfway house are all regular lasses with no stereotypical "hottie," although a few of them COULD have played that role (e.g. Sara Garcia, Sarah Fisher, Zoé De Grand Maison, etc.).In addition, the film successfully creates a spooky ambiance here and there, e.g. in the woods near the psyche facility; and the demon is pretty effective for a CGI monster, coming across as a meshing of the demon from "Scarecrow" (2013), the aliens in "Signs" (2002) and maybe Freddy Krueger (i.e. the claws).Unfortunately, I didn't buy the premise behind the creature, which came across as half-baked gobbledygook; the poem that unleashes the demon reads like it was written by a 13 year-old and the climatic explanation didn't resolve the overall ill-conceived impression. This naturally hinders the movie from being engaging; it limits the thrust of events and therefore suspense.Note to emerging filmmakers: Work the kinks out of your premise BEFORE making the movie. The director, Sheldon Wilson, needs to work on his scriptwriting skills because the movies he writes tend to be problematic story-wise ("The Hollow," "The Night Before Halloween," "Neverknock" and this one) while his movies written by others can be quite good for TV-budgeted flicks ("Mothman," "Red, Werewolf Hunter" and the aforementioned "Scarecrow," which is excellent).Lastly, the final scene is predictably lame. Still, there's enough good here to make "Stickman" worthwhile for those who appreciate these kinds of flicks.THE FILM RUNS about 89 minutes. There's no info on where it was shot, but since this is a Canadian production it might've been somewhere outside Toronto.GRADE: C