When we have close friends, we like
to think that we could tell them anything. Realistically the easiest way to not
have a secret get out, is to keep it to yourself. What would you do if all your
dirty secrets were recorded by someone you are close to, without you even
knowing? What would you do if the person you thought was your friend, wound up
being your worst nightmare?
Making her directorial debut,
Danielle Harris’s Among Friends is the story of a group of friends attending an
80’s themed dinner party. This dinner party also has a twist. What starts out
as a murder mystery, turns into a game of integrity, morality, and friendship.
When the attendees realize they must play this game to survive, things take an
interesting turn.
Among Friends is not a great movie.
I wanted to like it, but I just could not stand behind the film itself. The characters
are not lovable, and I found it had caring that any of this was happening. I
tended to say, oh well, they deserved it. The only character I started to like
was Jules (Brianne Davis). Her character was not great but, at some points the
comedic element to her character was the redeeming quality. There is a character
in the film named Blane (Chris Meyer), which initially got me excited (because my
name is Blaine) but the character is a complete douche…
The direction is the best part of
the film. Danielle did a great job with her first feature. The lighting was
good, camera direction was good. Everything about the shooting was good. As for
the writing by Alyssa Lobit, I was quite underwhelmed. As I said before, it was
very hard to care about the events that were going on. I just wanted more out
of the dialog, and character development, and general motive.
The gore is light but used well enough.
There is nothing too over the top or spectacular. My biggest grip is the color
of the blood. It looks more black than red. There are scenes that tried to push
the envelope, but ultimately fail to deliver. The first scene that comes to
mind is the balls scene, in the end it just didn’t deliver. The movie isn’t
terrible, but by the same token, isn’t great. I found it to be entertaining enough,
however at the end of the day it just didn’t deliver the goods.
In the end, Among Friends fails to
offer solid character development, as a result you just don’t get behind any of
the characters. I understand as the plot develops you suppose to turn on the
characters, unfortunately the “evidence” they give you about the characters doesn’t
really effect how you already feel about the characters. GLP gives this
mediocre tale a 2 out of 3 stabs. If you’re looking for an easy way to kill an
hour or two give Among Friends a watch. You may like it more than I did, which
is the beauty of horror. To each their own. If you want to find out more about
Among Friends check out the Website and Facebook page. View the trailer below.
GLP Rating:
