Innocence (2013) Reviews

• Some Things I Learned from Innocence (2014)

  AlexanderAnubis2017-07-24

  May Contain Spoilers 01. Surfing can cause a cerebral aneurysm to burst with fatal results. 02. Always take, without question, any drug a school doctor who barely knows you prescribes, even if they fail to explain what the medication is, what it is supposed to be for, and what its side effects might be. 03. There are sections of NYC's Central Park reserved exclusively for the use of students from two, or at most three, elite private high schools. No litter is ever permitted in these sections. 04. Students from elite high schools can't skateboard very well. 05. School nurses wear loose fitting, dress silk blouses to work. 06. If it has been at least four months since the sudden death of your wife, it's fine to leap into a torrid affair with the school nurse to give your daughter a new mother. 07. Published, highly respected and successful authors can be completely unobservant, rock stupid morons. 08. Every private high school is required by law to have at least one "Chloe." 09. Gardens are sometimes, "closed for renovations." 10. Teenagers who use the word "devirginized" are at very high risk for apparent suicide. 11. To help deal with an alcoholic mother who will allow you to be ritually sacrificed, school counselors recommend decorating your room to show your individuality. 12. To show their individuality, some teenagers decorate their rooms with discordant, ugly pink, white and silver wallpaper but don't hang any pictures, posters or anything else on the walls. 13. When starting at a new school, it's perfectly normal for various members of the faculty and administration to be popping in and out of your home, (and bedrooms), at any hour and without notice. If you call this behavior intrusive or creepy, you will be accused of being "hostile." 14. Some high schools have wooden lockers. 15. If you bump into the ghosts of two girls of about the same age, height, build and clothing in a wooden locker room, give them directions to The Shining (1980), because they are entirely superfluous where they are. 16. If you require the blood of virgin girls to maintain your book club, and you run a girl's school, always select your victims from among your students instead of sacrificing those with whom you have no connection. Multiple student deaths actually enhance a school's reputation and would never cause the slightest suspicion. 17. A school can have the same ageless faculty and staff for more than a century without causing undue comment. 18. People who give blue dresses as gifts are probably planning to sacrifice the recipient. 19. Girls should lose their virginity as young as possible to minimize the risk of being sacrificed by quasi-vampire Stepford wives who drink red tea. 20. Quasi-vampires can be killed by stabbing them in the chest with a metal dagger, at which point they turn ashen gray and evaporate in a swirl of CGI, hence they are conveniently self-cleaning. 21. If you kill one quasi-vampire, the rest of the book club members will evaporate as well. They must be connected in series. XYZ

• More like Susperia than Twilight

  flash19712015-03-19

  The other reviewer of this movie sure is hung up on Twilight for some reason. This movie has a good plot, nice acting, and is short and sweet. I have no idea how the other reviewer attributed this movie to Twilight except for the cover and with a pretty girl on it. If you've seen Dario Argento's Susperia, then you will have a better idea of what this movie is about which has nothing to do with vampires. My only complainant would be that the movie moves along a little slowly but at less than 90 minutes, it doesn't drag on and on to boredom after you realize what's going on. With so much garbage horror movies out there these days, this movie is well worth a watch.

• Atmospheric throughout

  nbthalia2016-05-08

  I enjoyed this film immensely. I had no preconceived ideas about it at all, which is usually the best way to approach a movie. Just pop Netflix on, sit back and be either disgusted, surprised or intrigued. For me, I am pleased to say, it was the last one. This film was very well done indeed and everyone had worked very hard to achieve this result. A blockbuster it wasn't, by any means, but I wasn't expecting one. The film was slow-paced, but that isn't always a bad thing. The subject matter of dark goings-on in a private girls' school did not call for a frenetic free-for-all. Even the young lead star moved very slowly through the story as though she were walking through treacle but it was a lovely performance. Indeed, all the cast was first class, apart from the father who came across as an unfeeling wimp. Maybe he was meant to play it that way. Whatever, he was outshone by the ladies, who treated us to some very welcome eye candy. I found the photography and lighting to be stunningly executed on nearly every shot. The suspense was sustained very well too. The special effects were very laudable considering the budget. Well done and thanks everyone and my good wishes in your future endeavours.

• I give it stars for effort!

  violma-632062015-06-08

  I think that this was a great display of effort. Great performances by Graham Phillips and Sarah Sutherland! I was also impressed by the work of director Hilary Brougher, one of my personal heroes. I think that though there is room for improvement in the this film I can tell that there was a great attempt made by the crew and especially the director. I can tell that the mistakes in the film were made most likely made during the editing process. I think that the composition is not quite up to par. Even so, I think that with a few changes and a little more experienced cast the experience of watching this movie would have been much improved.

• This is not the horror film that will define a generation, but it will muster up some very creepy imagery that will linger for a few days.

  bryank-048442015-08-12

  I admit it. I'm a complete sucker for the supernatural horror genre. I love fully engrossing myself in the wake of these ghost and demonic stories. Even though this is the one genre that has me leaving my turtle night light on at night, I can't help myself but watching every single film I can, relating to the supernatural. So I was pleasantly surprised to see a slow burning horror film from writer-director Hilary Brougher give us a unique take on this particular variety of film. Based off of Jane Mendelsohn's novel of the same name and with the help of writer Tristine Skyler, Brougher and Skyler deliver some very creepy moments, despite an over-the-top third act in this horror-drama genre film called 'Innocence'. The film opens up with a teenage girl named Becekett (Sophie Curtis) and her mother are surfing off Long Island, when her mother tragically drowns. We cut to four months later as her father Miles (Linus Roache), a successful writer has moved himself and Beckett to Manhattan to start over and move on from their recent tragedy. Miles enrolls Beckett into a luxury, exclusive prep school where she is welcomed by family friend Natalie (Stephanie March) and her son Tobey (Graham Phillips). Beckett is looked after by the beautiful school nurse Pamela (Kelly Reilly) and soon enough refers a psychiatrist named Dr. Kent (Sarita Choudhury) for counseling sessions with Beckett and her father. At the same time, Pamela is quickly taking a liking to Beckett's father and eventually moves in. However, shortly after the death of Beckett's mother, Becket begins to see wicked and scary hallucinations that she can't explain, by seeing dead classmates, and evil entities. And when one of her new classmates commits suicide by jumping off the school's roof, Beckett begins to figure out that there is something much more sinister going on at her school between the female faculty and their students. You could say there are glaring similarities to 'Rosemary's Baby' and 'The Stepford Wives' here, but instead of focusing on the visual effects and horror of the situation, Brougher dives into the realistic tones of one teenage girl's coping with the death of her mother and dealing with the strange things that are happening around her, which is a nice and fresh area to explore. Brougher almost too much uses the blue palette color scheme to accent when Beckett is experiencing these frightening hallucinations, which plays on the nose of too many genre elements we've seen in numerous other films. Curtis does a decent job with the more veteran actors around her, although March, Reilly, and Roache can only go so far, as the script doesn't allow them them to really take a bite into their characters. 'Innocence' is one half drama and one half horror, and it seems like the filmmakers never owned either genre to the fullest it could have been, instead they skirted around each area with a slow suspense. This is not the horror film that will define a generation, but it will muster up some very creepy imagery that will linger for a few days.