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Home | Film Review: The Snare (2017)

Film Review: The Snare (2017)

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SYNOPSIS:

Three friends head to the seafront for a drunken weekend, only to be imprisoned on the top floor of their holiday apartment by a malevolent paranormal force.

REVIEW:

I’m a big fan of the Evil Dead franchise, including the remake that was released just a few years ago. Whenever someone tries to compare a movie to that franchise, that creates a certain amount of expectations. I’m expecting to see a mixture of horror and humor bathed in over the top gore, or an intense and bloody experience. I’m on board for either experience. I love a good, fun gore flick, after all. Of course, it’s entirely possible that I’m a very sick man. After all, I’m the guy that laughed when I saw one of the characters in Final Destination gets hit by a bus.

The Snare is one of those movies I heard be compared to the Evil Dead films, so I was naturally curious to see if that held true. It didn’t live up to that description, and honestly, it was kind of unfair to compare it to Sam Raimi’s works. It does its own thing, and should be evaluated on its own merits. It never came across as trying to be like Evil Dead, and whoever thought it was a good idea to hint as much should be punched. It set preconceived notions of what to expect that can hurt the overall experience.

The Snare is about three friends who decide to hole up in a seafront apartment for the weekend for a good time. Things take an unfortunate turn when they end up trapped in the apartment. As they run out of food and water, they begin to break down mentally and physically. It seems like a supernatural force is holding them hostage, and it’s mostly focused on Alice (Eaoifa Forward). The actual presence of the supernatural is called into question because Alice herself may not be the most mentally sound person.

While the film wasn’t as gore soaked as I expected, it was still an effectively tense movie. Having the movie stay mainly within the confines of the apartment, the director is able to create a feeling of isolation and claustrophobia for the characters and the viewers both. As things keep getting worse for our leads, we almost feel as if we’re stuck in the situation with them. The tension is unrelenting.

Alice herself is having strange dreams and sleep walking episodes that hints that there is a mysterious force at work her, but her behavior only makes her the subject of suspicion. That puts our lead character in the most precarious position.  Early on, we get indications that Alice has a feel issues of her own. From watching her father creep on her in the beginning to the movie, and her own dreams/delusions, we are left wondering if there truly is some evil presence behind the characters’ predicament or if Alice’s psyche has taken the last exit to Psycho Town. By raising these questions, the film gives sense of confusion and uncertainty to an already dire situation. Eaoifa Forward does a pretty good job of showing Alice’s own confusion, fear, and vulnerability. She also adds layers to her performance that does a good job of insinuating that maybe Alice isn’t all there.

Dan Paton also shares a lot of screen time. He comes across as having a bit of roguish charm early on while showing signs of explosive anger. Once everyone is trapped is in the apartment, that anger becomes more prevalent. He becomes more paranoid and aggressive the worse things get. He slowly becomes a menacing figure. There’s an undercurrent of danger to the character, and Paton was pretty good at showing that without overdoing it.

Sadly, Rachel Warren as Lizzy didn’t get to do much in the movie. Of the three main characters, hers was the one that ended up with the least amount of screen time. Her character seemed to just lay around and not do much of anything once things got serious. With that said, Warren was pretty decent in the scenes she had. She was very likeable in the beginning of the movie, so seeing her character just give up added an air of tragedy.

On the downside of things, there’s a few things that didn’t make sense. I can understand why a couple like Carl and Lizzy would want to go hang out and party for the weekend in a secluded spot. Why they would bring along Alice was a little curious to me, and she seemed more like a third wheel. Lizzy and Alice were supposed to be childhood friends, but still, it seemed weird to let her tag along. If there was another guy in the group, it could have helped better establish Alice’s participation. Maybe Carl wanted to get up to some kinky hi-jinks with both ladies?

Another thing that stretched creditbility is that near the end of the movie (spoilery-territory here), Carl snaps and decides to force himself on Lizzy. This is a person suffering from starvation and dehydration. He had already made things even worse for himself by giving himself food poisoning, so I doubt he would have the energy to suddenly decide “I’m gonna have me some rape for lunch!”

With that said, The Snare was a very taut movie. Solid performances, a claustrophobic atmosphere, and unsettling imagery helps come together to create a very effective and disturbing experience. I definitely recommend giving it a watch. Just don’t go looking for the next Evil Dead.

7 comments

  1. SteelScissorsInYourSkull

    The Snare is a very dumb movie. The three characters are trapped in an apartment on the top floor of a large building. There are other buildings in site of the windows. They have electricity (though the elevator isn’t working). The building has fire alarms. The protagonists have matches and electricity. Like every apartment building in the history of apartment buildings there is a doorway by the elevator that would lead to the stairs. In some shots you can even see the hinges to that doorway on the side facing the hall. One of the characters is a semi-buff guy.

    These people can’t get out of the apartment. Anyone above the age of 5 could think of a dozen easy ways to get out of that apartment.

    Even if you get past the epic stupidity of the premise you’ll be bored by the rest of the incoherent and pointless script.

    The Snare just doesn’t work. Not even a little bit.

     
  2. I really dislike this movie. I DONT recomend anyone to watch this movie. its a waste of 2 precious hour of your life.

     
    • I thought this movie was absolute rubbish. There was no story telling us about the evil force that was holding them there or why it was there in the 1st place. I would not recommend this movie to anyone 0 out of 10.

       
  3. I still don’t know what the movie was about. A movie has to get my attention in the first fifteen minutes or like a book I know I won’t like it. This one I watched some of it because like an idiot I rented it from Redbox for almost two bucks, they started out for 99 cents remember? So, I didn’t want to feel I wasted my money but I did anyway. It was awful, almost torture to watch. I didn’t like it, it was almost as if it took you somewhere you didn’t want to be. It stunk!!!

     
  4. How in hell could you possibly rate this as positily as you did? This was the worst, slow, prodding, confusing miserable film I’ve seen in a while. I really don’t think I can trust another review from this site.

     
    • I think it’s fair to say if every reviewer, every review, and every perspective was created equal this site wouldn’t have survived as long as it has. That being said, I have not seen this film, but trust that the reviewer gave a non-bias viewing.

      More helpful to us though are comments that explain what you didn’t like, and what could have been changed about the films. This gives readers a better perspective than simply attacking the reviewer….

      fair enough?

      HNN

       
  5. Ok so one thing that I feel needs mentioning here is that you definitely need to take a look at the IMDb page and read all the things the producer put the cast through in filming this movie it’s pretty interesting. Movie wasn’t terrible and really you just need to give it a watch and make your own opinion. There were some good aspects to it for sure.

     

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