Saw 'The Crooked Man', being fond of horror regardless of budget (even if not my favourite genre) and being intrigued somewhat by the idea. Being behind on my film watching and reviewing, with a long to watch and review list that keeps getting longer, it took me a while to get round to watching and reviewing it.Giving 'The Crooked Man' a fair chance with being interest and apprehension, it turned out to be far better than expected. Won't say that 'The Crooked Man' is a great film (mediocre actually) because it isn't and the potential, while not wasted, is not fully lived up to. Considering the large number of films seen recently being mediocre and less and wasting potential, was expecting worse and was relieved that while wanting in a fair few areas it was actually one of my better recent low-budget viewings.'The Crooked Man' started off quite well, the first twenty minutes or so starting the film off on a promising, unsettling and atmospheric note that really does intrigue. Production values did have some eeriness and nowhere near as cheap as expected.The setting is effectively spooky. Initially, there are spooky and suspenseful moments, it isn't dull, and the storytelling in the first half does intrigue.However, the story was severely wanting in the second half after starting off promisingly. It is very disjointed and after the promising start the final third especially loses atmosphere, one loses interest and things start to not make sense. Too much of the film is vague and doesn't explore some elements and story strands enough, some dropped soon after being introduced, go nowhere or serve much point.Ending is unsatisfying, on top of feeling hasty there are too many loose ends hanging in the air. Got the sense that the writers didn't know how to end the film. Would have liked much more tension and suspense (where there is barely any of either), scares could have been more consistent (again nowhere near enough) and some weren't surprising enough and had no atmosphere, the over-obvious sound not helping. Found too the script to lack natural flow and with a fair bit of cheese and blandness going on, and the characters bland with some adopting some annoying and not always logical decision making. There is very little menace to the villain, the direction is phoned and generally the acting is subpar with Michael Jai White being little more than a barely used commercial device seemingly.Overall, mediocre. 4/10 Bethany Cox

This is a SyFy made for TV production. Crooked man is a combination of "Ring" and Slender Man with a touch of Freddy. A group of 12 year old screaming young ladies at a sleep over summon Crooked Man on a dare. Crooked Man is a non-certified electrician and killer who only lives in the shadows. The summoner is killed and six years later Crooked man is hunting down everyone at the household and their mum. Why 6 years later is poorly explained by Michael Jai White in what is slightly more than a cameo role.The story is a twist or combination of stories that we know. Crooked Man is an ugly horror figure and could have been much more in an "R" film. There is nothing bad about the film, other than the pace seemed a bit slow which could have been better by shaving a few seconds here and there.Guide: No F-words, sex, or nudity. One use of SOB.

This was a better film than I thought it would be. As soon as I saw the SyFy tag, I thought, OH OH!!! So it was a good day as I was pleasantly surprised by this little film.Though it follows plenty of other movies in the genre, particularly The Ring, Candyman, and Bloody Mary, the lightness with which the subject is directed make this a stronger film, than a run-of-the-mill clone.Instead of watching a video or saying a name into a mirror a few times you have to sing the song which will kill you. Seems like a daft thing to do... I mean it's known as "The Song That Will Kill You." But when you're a girl having a sleepover with her girlfriends and mum stops you watching scary films, what else will you do... especially if you're dared. No sooner has the song been sung than the Crooked Man is hunting. Unfortunately for our heroine, the Crooked Man makes good his escape leaving her stood over the dead body of her friend, with a bloody dripping knife in her hand.Years later, she returns to her hometown where she realises the Crooked Man has been a patient killer. On her arrival, people start dying again.As I previously stated, it's the direction along with the above average acting that keep this boat from sinking. There are four decent actors on the cast, though their skills aren't used much, Dina Meyer, Marco Rodriguez, Amber Benson, and Michael Jai White (who gets top billing). These get very little air time as it's the youngsters the film is about, as it should be. Though at times, all of the newbies, have scenes where they falter and the director decided not to shoot again. These are few and far between and mostly don't occur at pivotal moments of the story.The main drawback is the Song itself as it's a Nursery Rhyme, though it doesn't depict a killer, in fact, the opposite is true. The Rhyme is about Sir Alexander Leslie who resolved the religious and political freedom of Scotland. So this Hollywood bastardisation of an English Nursery Rhyme stuck in my claw. The writers could have looked up the origin and worked out a different hook for the Crooked Man, but that might have been too much work...Another thing that disrupts the flow of the film is the location of the Crooked House. Saying the rhyme and the spirit are worldwide, I find it amazing that the House is within driving distance. The location crew couldn't find a crooked tree next to a couple of rocks where the animators could render a CGI Crooked House. So they got them to render all of the above in a field. Bad luck for them, the budget must have been blown on the Crooked Man's disjointed movements, which works really well, they should have added bone cracking sounds to it as well, it would've made it nastier. The crew would've been better getting the polystyrene rocks and fake tree from the Original Star Trek as the CGI landscape was pathetic.That said, I did like the way the heroine could defeat the Crooked Man, though I've seen differing takes on this feature, it was put to good use.All-in-all, it's not too bad a film. It was wet and cold outside when I watched the movie and even though there were times when I was annoyed I was never bored. So if you find yourself in this situation, turn the lights down, leave your brain at the door, and cuddle up with a loved one and enjoy.

Likes : "Beware Beware the crooked man is coming for your soul" I'l give credit where credit is due director Jesse Holland has done their best with this film, although this movie lack the certain things that make a horror film creepy although it's not a bad movie to watch. A slumber party for 12 year old girls turn from a fun time in to a nightmare as one of the girls dare's the other to sing a creepy song , this is no ordinary song "oh no!" this is a song with a curse of the crooked man if you sing his song the crooked man come for you and everyone around you which is what the whole theme of this film is about.Some areas of this film is good giving the acting is pretty average with the script writing , if you remember ("conjuring 2 Enfield poltergeist") this very nursery song if you can call it that was mention in that film in a creepy way.The film quality is very low budget special from the IPF industry as some of the effect are from the low C.G.I range , Im surprised to actually see Michael Jai White in this film playing Milo who trying to stop this supernatural crooked man. Normal when you see Micheal in a film it normal the martial art type films but it's a welcome change even tho it's a cameo role for him really as he doesn't have many scenes.The atmosphere of the film is slightly creepy with the crooked man him self , which the concept for a horror villain as this static-y look and disjointed appearance go hand-in- hand with the spectacular nursery rhyme that accompanies him. Although the visual effect in this film aren't real high budget which is a ashame but this film does have that syfy channel feel to it , which this may appeal to some people but this was a one time watch for me. One thing this film does offer to horror fans in the brutal bloody scene which most horror fans will be happy with , it does offer some creepiness in part so this will depend on whether this film is your taste or not but i wouldn't expect anything special here. Dislikes : The film does start off creepy but where this film fails is this creepiness start to fade as the film goes on , this is partly because of the visual effect on the crooked man which i feel could have been done better. I mean this is a way if you look at "conjuring 2" we saw a brief figure of the crooked man walking down the corner now this i done with C.G.I it look creepy, this if I'm honest should've been what this concept should of looked like the film and atmosphere would be better through the whole film.There is a flaw in this film concept that didn't make sense , since one of the character left the town everything stop which is a bit odd because in reality this thing wouldn't of stop which is mentioned in the film by Micheal character which is a big flaw in this film. Overall : Don't expect anything special , not a bad film but could've been improved in areas