This film is part family drama and part horror film. Throughout the film we see both gernes presented but they do not mix too well.
The plot of the film is ok. With a typical horror movie story, someone dies, the house is haunted, the family is haunted by a monster/ghost, a innocent child in the middle of it. The movie takes a while to kickstart its horror genre with majority of the first part of the film being about a family that just lost their mum that was murdered by a car. When the murderer is revealed it does not come as a surprise. There's only really like 3 of characters in the film that could of been suspects and I'm not counting the ghosts. And the one they picked out was unsatisfying and almost lazy and it does not come as a surprise. It turns out to be Samantha that killed the mum out of obsession over Jeff. I knew as soon as Samantha kissed Jeff that she was the killer, but without the kiss it was still pretty obvious.
If you look at this film as a drama and the horror side of the film is possibly a metaphor for their experience as a family and the distress a mothers death has caused. The ghost represents the hauntings that the death brought to their lives and the disturbance to Jennys' mental health maybe? Maybe the whole plot of the movie is not about a father and a daughter fighting evil, maybe the horror aspect of the film is the representations of how a parents death can affect a child. The depiction of the ghost is represented as the mother and a weird twisting, climbing celling man is who? I preferred the "crooked man" wannabe more than the mother ghost. But he wasn't utilised at all, he didn't even need to be in the film. He was an extra add-on that made this film worse. Maybe if there was even a smudge of context on him appearing twice, yes only twice in the film (and one being a post credit scene, so really only once) it would have provided the second ghost with more appeal.
The title "Separation" either means two things. 1. Its to represent the end of relationship between the mother and everyone else which is a little bit on the nose or 2. Its the separation between worlds of evil ghosts and earth BUT end scene ruins it completely.
Would of rated the film a 6 if the end scene was cut out. Post the end of the film we see a quick shot of Jeff putting a photo in Jenny's room that was burned earlier in the film of all 3 of them. Then we see the crawling, celling man come out to scare Jenny? Why? Set up a sequel, maybe but the films ending was good and "normal" for a horror film. Bad ghosts lose and family win, generic evil vs good. But that post credit scene (actually before the credits) ruins the ending, now the sequel will never be made and we are left with a cliff-hanger that didnt need to be there. Post credit scene is a call back to the scene in the comic office on the first viewing of Jeffs work where they mention the ending, and how evil always comes back for round 2 and never actually disappears.
As well as the "post end scene" the ending sequence when Jeff and Jenny are falling from a window didn't really work. So the fell and the ghost saved them? Or did they die and now they are actually in the ghosts world because that would explain "the crooked man" wannabe in the post credit scene. Would of worked way better even if the film ended before they hit the ground. Leave audience guessing what happens not leaving audience with a million question that lead back to the start of the film. The beginning and end are exactly the same. Same house, same hauntings, same atmosphere, too much of a similarity between the genres of the film. So nothing was resolved in the film, all that Jeff did was pointless? So the ghost is still haunting them besides the mother disappearing after the fall out of window?
Also I really liked the DMT experience scene with Jeff. The way the experience was portrayed was great, the visuals worked well with the plot as Jeff used it to speak to his dead wife and had a goal in mind during his "trip". The way Jeff was in and out of time basically, seeing his wife hit by a car, seeing the red overlay on the world, maybe creating a bridge between realities by opening his mind with DMT and managing to speak to his wife.
Overall the movie is mediocre BUT after a slow beginning it finally gets into some sort of rhythm and gets totally ruined by the ending.
-if you are a horror fan i would pass on this film as it doesn't really classify as a traditional horror film and is not scary at all.
The plot of the film is ok. With a typical horror movie story, someone dies, the house is haunted, the family is haunted by a monster/ghost, a innocent child in the middle of it. The movie takes a while to kickstart its horror genre with majority of the first part of the film being about a family that just lost their mum that was murdered by a car. When the murderer is revealed it does not come as a surprise. There's only really like 3 of characters in the film that could of been suspects and I'm not counting the ghosts. And the one they picked out was unsatisfying and almost lazy and it does not come as a surprise. It turns out to be Samantha that killed the mum out of obsession over Jeff. I knew as soon as Samantha kissed Jeff that she was the killer, but without the kiss it was still pretty obvious.
If you look at this film as a drama and the horror side of the film is possibly a metaphor for their experience as a family and the distress a mothers death has caused. The ghost represents the hauntings that the death brought to their lives and the disturbance to Jennys' mental health maybe? Maybe the whole plot of the movie is not about a father and a daughter fighting evil, maybe the horror aspect of the film is the representations of how a parents death can affect a child. The depiction of the ghost is represented as the mother and a weird twisting, climbing celling man is who? I preferred the "crooked man" wannabe more than the mother ghost. But he wasn't utilised at all, he didn't even need to be in the film. He was an extra add-on that made this film worse. Maybe if there was even a smudge of context on him appearing twice, yes only twice in the film (and one being a post credit scene, so really only once) it would have provided the second ghost with more appeal.
The title "Separation" either means two things. 1. Its to represent the end of relationship between the mother and everyone else which is a little bit on the nose or 2. Its the separation between worlds of evil ghosts and earth BUT end scene ruins it completely.
Would of rated the film a 6 if the end scene was cut out. Post the end of the film we see a quick shot of Jeff putting a photo in Jenny's room that was burned earlier in the film of all 3 of them. Then we see the crawling, celling man come out to scare Jenny? Why? Set up a sequel, maybe but the films ending was good and "normal" for a horror film. Bad ghosts lose and family win, generic evil vs good. But that post credit scene (actually before the credits) ruins the ending, now the sequel will never be made and we are left with a cliff-hanger that didnt need to be there. Post credit scene is a call back to the scene in the comic office on the first viewing of Jeffs work where they mention the ending, and how evil always comes back for round 2 and never actually disappears.
As well as the "post end scene" the ending sequence when Jeff and Jenny are falling from a window didn't really work. So the fell and the ghost saved them? Or did they die and now they are actually in the ghosts world because that would explain "the crooked man" wannabe in the post credit scene. Would of worked way better even if the film ended before they hit the ground. Leave audience guessing what happens not leaving audience with a million question that lead back to the start of the film. The beginning and end are exactly the same. Same house, same hauntings, same atmosphere, too much of a similarity between the genres of the film. So nothing was resolved in the film, all that Jeff did was pointless? So the ghost is still haunting them besides the mother disappearing after the fall out of window?
Also I really liked the DMT experience scene with Jeff. The way the experience was portrayed was great, the visuals worked well with the plot as Jeff used it to speak to his dead wife and had a goal in mind during his "trip". The way Jeff was in and out of time basically, seeing his wife hit by a car, seeing the red overlay on the world, maybe creating a bridge between realities by opening his mind with DMT and managing to speak to his wife.
Overall the movie is mediocre BUT after a slow beginning it finally gets into some sort of rhythm and gets totally ruined by the ending.
-if you are a horror fan i would pass on this film as it doesn't really classify as a traditional horror film and is not scary at all.