Don't Say Its Name

When I watch any film, but particularly my favoured genre I ask a few questions. Did they love what they did, did they treat the audience with respect, and how did the do with what they have.

I was extremely impressed with Don't Say Its Name.

You can tell they had a passion for the story they told, which is both Indigenous, and Universal. The freshness and realness of the people who were real people and not just caricatures comes through for the whole thing. For those of us who are descended from colonizers, this story may very well provoke a reaction. That's another piece of an extremely well crafted puzzle.

They respected me and my time as the audience. The scares, while not intense, were earned and not cheap. I am really used to being treated like an idiot by a large section of the horror genre, and it was really nice to be able to watch something that wanted me to pay attention to the people and the ideas in the story.

They did a tremendous amount with what they had. They alternated between CGI and practical effects with a deft hand for, despite Telefilm and SuperChannel funding was not a huge budget film. They made the story work for them, and there were large parts of the movie where I actually lost track of the time, and that's really rare in horror films these days, especially when you're watching on TV Streaming services with all your devices around asking for attention.

While it's true that at it's heart it's not a blazingly original idea there are few of those left, and they took a classic story and made it their own.

I was really impressed - this is well worth your time.