Cinema Lounge Reviews

When an anthropology professor finds out one of her students goes missing whilst working on a case, she is determined to find out what really happened to him that night. However, she soon becomes obsessed with the truth and her own mental state slowly starts declining into insanity.

The story actually sounds like it could turn out to be a really interesting film as it has some of the horror connotations and leaves unanswered questions in our minds which I do like to see in horror movies. Unfortunately, it wasn’t delivered well and may have ruined the interesting storyline completely. Like I mentioned before, it is good to leave the audience with unanswered questions so that they may be revealed later on but there is a limit in my opinion and gives us too many at the start that it creates plotholes and leads to us being confused about what is going on. Because of this, it is hard to follow along to at times and to fully understand which goes remove the horror experience for my liking. At one point at the beginning, there appears to be a time jump into a few years later without any notice and takes a few moments to realise what has happened further adding to the confusion.

At times it feels like some of the scenes don’t follow the plot at all and are just there to reach the time target and are quite unusual. But apart from these little areas of improvement, the film has ticked off a few boxes which kinda makes up for these mistakes but not entirely. Personally, it has got the tone and setting of ‘The Nightmare Gallery’ spot-on for what they wanted to achieve and for what it is based on. As seen in the movie we previously reviewed ‘Rapid Eye Movement’ we get to see how the small cast of characters develops over time. Especially the main protagonist who shows how this mystery is affecting her mentally. As well as that, we get to see the relationships develop between the main couple of the movie and other partnerships which the professor allies with. However, I do have to say that it doesn’t conclude with a clear ending and still leaves the question of what did happen in the end. Something I do like to see in movies is that they are also various plot twists throughout. 

So let’s start with the beginning first. The opening intro of the movie sets the tone perfectly and fits well within the horror genre as well as what they are trying to achieve. In a sense, it reminds me of the Harry Potter style a little of the way they have portrayed it. The phone opens with a spooky sounding phone call which further adds to the horror feel. The overall greyscale colour scheme sets the mood for the movie and doesn’t change which I think is effective as all the movie focus’ on the characters psychotic breakdown.

Speaking about psychotic, there is a lot of it which is perfect for a horror movie like this as it builds suspense and terror for what is coming. I do have to mention that I love the terrifying characters that you don’t expect near to the ending but does lead to a more confusing scene. For me, ‘The Nightmare Gallery’ focus’ delivers a brilliant last creepy scene to finally show how the character’s mental state as declined entirely and pushed her into insanity. Something I wish we did see more of is a wider cast as we don’t seem to meet any characters throughout which does have its pros and cons. One last thought I’d mention is that it is quite gruesome in some scenes and in some places where it doesn’t really need that much and could quite possibly work without it. 

For the kind of movie the studio was trying to achieve, I hoped that the acting from the cast would have been a little better for what the quality of the movie was produced in.