Among Friends (2012)

Lack of good storyline.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This movie is pathetic. I THINK its supposed to be a cheap Horror-Comedy type of nonsense film that, assuming that is the case, completely misses on the humor, lacks originality, and lacks effort. The dialogue from the get-go is terrible and cliché beyond words. Characters saying the ol' "what persons of this age/socioeconomic status would say in this situation who are best friends but so terrible to each other!" Again, If the supposed objective is spoofing movies in a campy horror movie style, it doesn't work at all. If the objective is to make the audience laugh on its merits, I can't imagine who's laughing. What was with the limo driver addressing each character exiting the limo? That early scene was Unforgivably unoriginal/unfunny to the point there's no redemption possible for me (I did continue watching however). The acting for the first 30 minutes of the movie is noticeably uninspired as if they did it on one take at the end of the shoot. Oddly it becomes better as the movie progresses, as if only the second half of the movie was actually the movie and the first 30 minutes was written in 30 minutes, filmed in 30 more and never revisited, revised or edited.Last items -The use of the F curse is, again, over-exposed, unoriginal, and ruins a lot of scenes for me. Its overuse doesn't come off as adding comedic value, rather, annoying and unoriginal. -Having one character tripping balls on mushrooms; sooooooo overplayed come on this is he best you could do? *One funny moment is the playing of the privately incognito sex tape. The bad part about this; proving this movie is capable of entertaining the audience if it wants to.If Danielle Harris wasn't attached to this picture you wouldn't be seeing anything above a 3. Keywords; unoriginal, not funny, lack of effort toward script/acting. Why would you want to watch a movie with these attributes. The 4.5 aggregate rating is for Danielle Harris' name.

I haven't read the rest of the reviews but how does this rate 4.5?As one reviewer said, it's The Breakfast Club in the House of 1000 Corpses...and I'd add Come Back To The Five And Dime, Jimmy Dean. Bernadette, a lovely psychotic psychologist, plans a party murder mystery party for her friends...and then drugs them so they can't move. From there, she exposes their lies and hypocrisies. Sure, the fact that she's engaged in deception to know all that she knows and has her own hypocrisies doesn't make sense...that's why she's psychotic. In the course of the night, she shows the hidden videos of the "friends" cheating on each other, raping each other and spying on each other, while keeping their secrets. Throw in some mushrooms and general trippiness and what's not to like? The rock solid script takes you through the various sins with some excellent group dynamics and ensemble acting. Towards the end, Jules (the blond bombshell who's tripping) goes into a full blown hallucination which throws out an even more unsettling vibe with a gasp-inducing consequence. Everyone is spot on in their roles. Bernadette plays her insanity with a subtleness and restraint that could have thrown the movie off the rails. This provides the perfect contrast in the rare moments when she does flip out. Jules, too, shines in her role and brings depth to her party-girl persona. When I first saw her, I thought she was too pretty bring off the role but she fearlessly takes on the drug trip aspect and sells it brilliantly. All in all, it starts up quick and maintains its pace providing an amazing ride!

Back when I was around 10-12 years old, in the glorious early nineties that was, I had two celebrity crushes. The first one was Christina Ricci, based on her inimitably stoic performance of Wednesday in "The Addams Family", and the other one was Danielle Harris, based on her appearances in the "Halloween" sequels 4 and 5 (which I actually wasn't yet allowed to watch) and the Bruce Willis vehicle "The Last Boy Scout". I was completely mad about little Jamie Lloyd in her eerie jester costume, and that cherubic yet mysterious face always remained printed in my pre-adolescent mind. Then we didn't hear or see anything remarkable from Danielle Harris for about fifteen years, until she made a phenomenal horror comeback in Rob Zombie's "Halloween"; ironically enough the remake of the original of the franchise that made her famous. I'm very happy that, since 2007, Danielle became a very frequent and reliable horror leading lady/scream queen. She starred in a handful of really entertaining movies ("Hatchet II", "Stake Land", "Blood Night") as well as in a couple of disappointing duds ("Shiver", "Camp Dread"), and in 2012 she brought her career to the next level by making her debut as a director with "Among Friends". In all honesty I have to say that, based on the plot description or encountered reviews, I probably never would have bothered to seek out this film if it weren't for the fact that Danielle Harris directed it. "Among Friends" objectively looks and sounds like a mundane and conventional slasher, and it really is just that. No wait, I'm mistaken… In a mundane and conventional slasher, most of the characters still get killed in a gory fashion, whereas in "Among Friends" the vast majority of them only get wounded. A six-headed group of friends meet up at Bernadette's house, in a fancy rented limousine, supposedly for a murder-themed game night. Before they are properly installed, though, it turns out that their hostess has a much more sadistic and realistic game in mind. They all wake up tied up and semi-paralyzed around the dinner table and get confronted with a whole lot of intrigues, hidden affairs, betrayal and dark secrets. There's a little bit of torture and mayhem to enjoy (for example half of a scalping), but the blood hunger of rabid horror junkies will definitely not be stilled. Most of the film is uninteresting drivel and bickering between unlikable characters you don't care for anyway. Danielle Harris' direction is competent, but she doesn't really put her mark. The performances vary from average to poor, and the proudly announced cameo appearances (Michael Biehn, Danielle Harris herself) are barely noticeable. Only Kane Hodder has a remotely fun supportive part as the limo driver. I hope Harris will take another shot at directing a horror movie, this time with a slightly better script.

"The directorial debut of Danielle Harris, best known as a scream queen for her multiple horror film roles, four of them in the Halloween series:in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) as Jamie Lloyd, and in the new versions of Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009) as Annie Brackett."REVIEW: The movie got some really bad reviews which is totally unfair since it's a really fun-to-watch movie with witty script, comic elements and extreme gore. For a low-budget movie "Among Friends" is enjoyable, sinister, cocky and destined to achieve a cult status for horror fans, so sit back, get your pop corn, a group of friends and enjoy!7.5/10 (it's a pity IMDb doesn't give you the number.5 option)