You Should Have Left (2020)

Don't believe the simple minded negative reviews. It was interesting, and kept you guessing. It definitely was NOT boring like others have mentioned. I found it to be creepy and kept me on the edge of my seat. Give it a chance it's definitely worth it.

A lot better than many of the horror / thrillers coming out these days, so not too sure why so many negative reviews. Good acting, good suspense. Does a pretty good job for small budget movie.

It's more of an eerie suspense thriller rather than a jump scare, so if you're after constant scares, this might not be for you. Certainly got us hooked right till the end.

The idea of doors appearing and the geometry not quite being right is literally something that has happened in many of my nightmares. And as an elementary school teacher and third parent to a 9 year old, the want to protect Ella was an added layer that has not been in my nightmares yet, but I definitely felt that anxiety. Some of the plot was a little more of a plot device, like why Theo and Ella had to stay for one more night, I will give that. But overall, I liked it.

The acting was meh, the writing was meh, but I loved loved loved the camera work. Straight lines/angles on screen and focused reflections and stark depth of field stuff, all relating to the movies story now that I think back on it. Simple yet impressive light effects.

I loved Stir of Echoes so I wanted to give this one a try, and this one kind of emulates that same "what's actually going on here?" theme that most psychological thriller's seem to have. While this movie didn't have great story pacing as Stir of Echoes did, it still held my attention fairly well. It got a bit confusing late in the 3rd act but the very ending cleared it up enough. Confusing to the point of almost hating the movie lol! But the last few lines worked well and made me go, "Ohhhhhh, that's what it meant..." so it wasn't as bad as it could've been.

ALSO - Those are some major red flags for an AirBnB when multiple townsfolk are raising their eyebrows at you staying there, right?!

I'd recommend it if you liked Stir of Echoes and enjoy Kevin Bacon, and if you like good camera work. Honestly the cinematography saved it for me.

6/10

I'm pretty sure the people giving this such a low rating were expecting this to be another dime store horror, which it isn't. This is a slow burn psychological thriller with some horror aspects. There are some mild jump scares but this is more like if M. Knight Shyamalan wrote Groundhog Day and set it in the Amityville House minus the devil. It wasn't prefect, but it wasn't bad either. Great performances and beautiful scenery. I'd watch it again to see what I missed the first time.

There is a little problem here. There is written that "A screenwriter travels to a remote house in Wales with his family so that he can write the sequel to his big hit film, but he begins to regret his decision after suffering from a severe case of writer's block. " This is probably from another movie, because he is not a writer. He is an ex-banker and there is no writer's block, of course... But the film is medium and Kevin Bacon is great !

First of all, I enjoyed watching Kevin Bacon playing his character. He is talented and he has a lot of experience. So, he was a very good choice for a complicated character like Theo. Also, I saw nice acting from Avery Tiiu Essex (Theo's daughter). She is talented. The story is very fascinating. It is the story of a family that goes to a special house for a vacation. Theo is suspected of killing his ex-wife. The movie is well-made. Most of the story is happening in the house. In my opinion, the director could benefit from more locations. The background noise and music were awesome. I liked the movements of the camera and the angles of the camera in different scenes. In summary, I recommend watching this movie to horror fans.

Warning - it's not a horror film, more of a drama n mystery but tediously prolix.

David Koepp as a writer is phenomenal but as a director he is lazy and he proved it once again with this film. The film gets tedious after a while n apart from the star cast (Kevin Bacon) n the lovely locations, it has nothing good. There is unnecessary hide n seek inside the house. There is no tension but monotonous nightmares. The end was predictable for me. Generous with a 6 cos of Bacon n the nice locations.

Some moron has put up the synopsis of Secret Window regarding a writer moving in a secluded cabin to overcome writer's block.

Watch this film, knowing what you get yourself into watching and this thought alone will make you enjoy it. Kevin Bacon is always fun to see acting and he does a good job here, carrying most of this film literally on his shoulders. The cinematography is eye-pleasing and the music and atmosphere immersive. Together with a sufficient run time which does not get long and tiring, these elements make it a good combo for a film to watch if you have no better alternative. The main problem in this film is the dialogue and generally the script. Its difficult to say this is a great psychological thriller while its dialogue... kinda sucks. Luckily there is not that much dialogue in the second half of the film, so you can enjoy a bit the experience of a thriller which is not meant to jump scare you, but to give you an eerie feeling overall. 6/10

Thought I would add a quick review as there is a lot of negativity around this film. I'm suggesting it's a classic but it's fine as it is. Kevin Bacon is good as ever and it's a well put together story I'd probably a bit obvious. It's plenty creepy enough and at 90 minutes worth a watch in my opinion.