Braid Quick View A Visually Stunning Solid Horror Flick Grade: B
Source: IMDB
Braid is about two fugitives Tilda (Sarah Hay) and Petula (Imogen Waterhouse), escaping their crappy apartment after the police raided it. They returned back to their childhood friend Daphne’s (Madeline Brewer) house, where they have to play her game of make believe house for two days. Three rules to go by during this game: Everyone plays, no outsiders, and everyone finishes the game. I gotta say: As weird as Braid was, it’s quite an intriguing little horror flick. The Cinematography t’was excellent, the film looked great all around. You talk about a game of house: The film truly captures these girls fantasy world, it did indeed looked like a wonderland. Beautiful color pallet in many scenes consisting of pink, even when the film got dark great use of colors. The Score was pretty good, I enjoyed this one piece during the third act. The cast was pretty good. Madeline Brewer playing the psychotic wealthy friend Daphne played a great performance, didn’t feel over the top at all, pretty creepy display as it should be. The film makes you hate Daphne in the beginning, but as you learn more about her... You sense of empathy because just what she went through as a child, makes you understand why she is this way, and why she stays far away from society. Sarah Hay and Imogen Waterhouse both played pretty good performances, I enjoyed both characters, despite what they did as kids... I never felt against these characters. It was an accident, I didn’t think they deserve what they gotten as I hoped they get out of Daphne’s house. So I do have a few issues with the film. Some style choices were a bit much, especially in the acid trip scenes. Petula goes around the house for Daphne’s fortune, before she does that, she encounters some writing on the wall, about a spell... I still don’t understand it at all still. The third act kind of lost me in a way, completely different from the entire story, although it does interest me... Just felt confusing as a whole, very weird to conclude your film like this. In the third act Tilda asked Petula what day she thinks it is, she goes over the wall paper calendar. Now what’s weird about this scene, is Tilda has a smart phone literally in her hand... So why doesn’t Petula just take the phone and just check the date?! Just was an odd scene. I had an enjoyable time with Braid, felt this was one of the better good films of 2019. The opening shot was well done, it made you question what these girls were doing out in the field, a solid way to start out your horror film. The whole gimmick of a horror film taking place in a game of house, was so weird that honestly it worked out pretty well. Visually stunning and at times entertaining too. The horror side of this film works pretty well, along with the slasher portion and just creepy weird chick. I was surprised with the slasher sequence, they went all out there, nicely done visually looked really good. I enjoyed the script, very weird yet intriguing at the same time. Overall, Braid is a solid horror film. I recommend this film, it’s on Amazon Prime if any of you are interested. - Mitch Smietana