It’s like a live-action episode of a soap opera.
Stranger’s Relative is another independent horror film that appears to have more or less had every scene filmed in one take.
The movie is about a young woman, Angela, who rents a room from an African American witch. After Angela moves in a bunch of spooky stuff starts happening (like a door opening—scary!) and we follow her as she tries to figure out what is going on.
Angela is an undocumented migrant, and with her living with another othered person (on two fronts, really) I thought we might have some commentary on race and such. Nope. If you want that sort of thoughtfulness, best avoid this one.
We have caught ourselves a stinker in just about every way. I honestly considered turning it off halfway through as I doubt I can get a full review out of this. The film simply does nothing right. The acting is perhaps the most off-putting as it really seems like they are reading cue cards for the first time in almost every spoken line. The acting is bad that I am not sure if we can blame the actors—it seems more like they were forced to act right after hearing what they were supposed to say.
The directing is also weird. This film has more cuts than most action films. There is simply no reason for the camera to be jumping around this much. It is bad enough to where it gave me a bit of a headache. The visual quality is likewise odd—it is clearly high definition, but the sets and colors are washed out or splashy (for lack of a better term) and not in a good way.
There is a complete lack of scars. Everything is forecasted too strongly, and the piss-poor special-effects make each haunting moment more cringe worthy than anything. Further, the story is just boring.
We have terrible characters in a terrible story. There is nothing redemptive here in any way. The film isn’t even self-aware enough to be in the “so bad it is good” category. It is just bad. 0/10
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