DVD Review: Horror Pic VISIONS Fails To Impress Despite An Eclectic Cast
Visions is the latest film from horror conveyor belt Blumhouse Productions. Unfortunately it’s not the best or most original fright pic to come out of the horror shingle. The biggest plus for this movie is that it attempts to do something new with its ending, which finally adds a little colour to a film filled with a tick list of horror clichés.
Directed by Kevin Greutert, Visions follows the tried and tested formula of a young couple moving into a new property only for something sinister to occur. This time Isla Fisher and Anson Mount take ownership of a struggling Californian vineyard and things start to get strange in their neighbourhood.
The most striking think about Visions is the cast – it’s got such a bizarre selection of actors gathered together – Fisher and Mount are joined by Jim Parsons, Gillian Jacobs, Joanna Cassidy and Eva Longoria. It’s like Producer Jason Blum and Kevin Greutert went to a Hollywood soiree and offered a small role to everyone they met.
As a horror, Visions isn’t really a success. Many of the frights are cheap jump-scares and you can see a major plot twist coming from early on. You’d expect something a little better from a man with two films in the Saw franchise under his belt. It’s never good when a movie packs the majority of its tension into the opening credit sequence.
The acting in the film is so-so and Isla Fisher just about sells her role. Mount comes off much better, even though he has very little to do other than act confused and incredulous (message to Hollywood: Give this man a decent leading role). Everyone else is in extended cameo mode, fleeting in and out of the movie as the plot requires them.
Visions just about holds the attention until the climax, when things admittedly get interesting on a narrative level. However, by that time it’s just too late to engage an audience after 70 minutes of cheap thrills and over-baked genre tropes. This is a passable time waster for fans of odd celebrity cameos, but serious horror aficionados would be better off looking elsewhere.
