To the unknown Chris Moole, "Astral:" A New Dimension is a full-length debut that could be handled if Chris wanted to, if Chris had a little more experience and a desire to do anything at all. This work has nothing to do with the franchise of the films of the same name, and if it has, it is purely conditional: we again plunge into the atmosphere of creeping horror caused by the attempts of careless people to penetrate the dimensions on the other side of reality, where they have never actually been called.
Here, a long-familiar identification feature is elevated to the absolute. There is the main character Alex - all such a strange library schmuck with a tragic family history. There are his friends - extras for pushing the plot to at least something so that Alex does not fill one hundred percent of screen time, but at least ninety. There is a girl in love with him - for romance in the midst of tension has not hurt anyone, right? They all study at the most luxurious (my lord, this is a palace of some kind!) university, which flashes here from all sides at every opportunity, because the only thing that is beautiful and worthy of attention in this film is him, and the rest can be safely drained into the toilet. And here on one of the pairs, the kids listen to the abstruse esoteric-encyclopedic stream of the teacher’s consciousness, because it is so important to explain even to the dumbest person that there are other dimensions inaccessible to almost anyone (dogs and snails for sure). The film takes on an overwhelming task: to cram into the minds of the audience what was clearly told, shown and proven a hundred years ago in an infinite number of other horror films (all parts of the same “astral” franchise, for example), and make it the most boring lecture language. Bravo.
All right, so be it. Alex, inspired by his beloved studies and in order to contact his mysterious and tragically deceased mother, decides to establish a connection with the otherworldly. He frankly does not care about the predictable danger of the event, so when real problems begin, the kid fusses, running from one guru to another, and in the end what? And in the end, there was nothing to climb, my dear. Yes, you can justify your irrepressible curiosity by the fact that you miss your mother, but you can’t believe it at all: the authors of their characters, in fact, extremely sloppy prescribed. It is not possible to sympathize with one of them, because by deed, by deed to each: Alex seems to be created to suffer from the invasions of demons; the girlfriend in love with him does not depart from the image of another sufferer, whose feelings do not affect anyone but herself; Alex’s friends and other faces remain chirping against the background of tinsel, which in any other horror would necessarily be sent to a meat grinder.
Is there a meat grinder here? Pfft! Don't be ridiculous! Boring galimatia with an esoteric bias by the middle of the session flows into a frankly bad parody of “Paranormal phenomenon” to suddenly retrain it into a typical dull exorcism film. All this stretches to the limit with a lethargic suspense and only the most patient viewer-sadomasochist will wait for the finale, so crumpled and cropped that the little action, finally visiting the scenery of this misunderstanding, will seem a highlight under a huge layer of dough. If you are not a raisin maniac, then you have nothing to do here.
Astral: The New Dimension is not the most horrifically filmed, but a blatantly mean and worthless deception for the audience: ooh, look, it’s going to be scary right now... no, it won’t. It will not be scary, funny, or sinful: Chris Moole is another adept of cowardice in the horror industry, able only to play a little in the genre, but never enter it not only with his head, but at least with the tip of his nose. Drawing a shadow in a corner, rocking a pendulum on a table, whispering to a voice recorder in a strange voice – are you trying to scare us with this? And in the end, just to dump a heap into the demon-weary cinema hall a single scene, even a millimeter related to the realities and style of modern horror - and that's all?
To retake, Chris! To recap!
This is the film I spent Saturday night with. It’s one of the few horror movies I’ve seen in my life, so there’s nothing to compare it to. (I haven’t seen the entire Astral movie series.)
Actors: I have never seen any of them before, but I have no complaints. There is no drama here, it is not actually stated, just communication between friends at the university. At least some emotions I saw on the face of the main character, and he, by the way, with long hair and under certain lighting is very similar to young Johnny Depp.
The scenery: Neither here nor there, although the picture to my taste was a little empty. Too much gray.
Plot: I think classic. The teenager became bored, interesting, and he with the thought “why not” went exactly where no one called him. There is no strong development of events, the ending clearly hints that there should be a continuation, but I strongly doubt that it will be.
Outcome: You can watch, but not very interesting. All fear, though not even fear, but tension is created with the help of sounds (whistling, gnashing, muttering, etc.), if you turn off the sound, which is as if you were looking at nothing. You can tickle your nerves, but I will not reconsider.
We decided to go to the company and watch a new horror film, the ratings have long ceased to pay attention, so we specially chose the appropriate evening time (not in the morning to watch a horror movie) and went to work.
Everyone's first emotion was, "Hey, that's the guy from Fear the Walking Dead, but he's a little old for a college kid!" Then they discussed the desert of the university, then the unwashedness of the main character, then the intimacy of everything that happens, then other and other things. But the only thing I didn’t see was horror. There's no suspense, there's no scrimming, there's nothing in this movie. The apotheosis of this film was the scene where the main demon was shown for the first time, because at this moment almost everyone in the hall laughed in his voice.
The main character's motivation is simply murderously stupid + breaks down towards the end. There was no interest in watching anyone, and the audience began to leave from the middle and even at the end. I would especially like to highlight the final scene of the exorcism, as it could save at least somehow the film, but not everything is short and confused.
Of course, I will not go to such advice under any pretext (even to fans of the main character), but this is everyone’s business.
What is Astral: A New Dimension? Well, certainly not part of the line of horrors from the mass-producer James Wan. “The New Dimension” was exactly impressed by the “older brothers”, and often refers to some board “Ouiji”, but the fact remains that a quick film shot on the knee (the filming process took literally 12 days), “Astral” looks like a teaser for a larger and possibly better film. The story at the core clearly needs to be expanded, since in the Astral scenario is limited to some general touches and clearly concise presentation of the material.
So, in the prologue, a young woman is discharged from a mental hospital only to kill herself (this is not a spoiler; this is literally stated in the annotation). About fifteen years later, her child Alex became a student and decided to try "astral projection." Having played with lucid dreams, the young man wants to experience out-of-body experiences so that his spirit travels around. Sleeping Alex accidentally opens the gates not only for himself, but also for some evil spirits. Why? Well, it must be a cliché from horror movies will never get old.
The problem is that this almost classic New Dimension plot serves in an inadvertently ridiculous format. The way you create a fantastic theme in “Astral” certainly does not shine with subtlety, since the characters only talk about paranormal. The tedious dialogue revolves around the same thing: Alex tries to convince his friends that travel through the astral is possible. Alas, breaking the “show, not tell” rule destroys the whole atmosphere. Ideas of genetic predisposition to mental illness, desire to learn more about pedigree and supernatural clichés exacerbate the creeping and weak plot.
In general, implementation is also weak. Again, much of the Astral is made up of dialogue, dull explanations of supernatural phenomena, libraries, or classrooms. Yes, there are a few scenes in which Alex sleeps and something comes out of him, but it feels like a tracing from Paranormal Phenomenon. The film takes more than 40 minutes to accelerate, but it feels empty: something active begins to happen near the end ... to immediately shut up.
Frank Dillane portrays a boring protagonist. The other characters are probably even worse. Even if we consider all the characters of the film in full seriousness, then at best they look like teenagers from an ordinary horror filmed in England with almost professional actors. The tastelessness seems to extend even to the magnificent architecture of Royal Holloway College, where the film was shot.
The downsides of Astral are so significant that it’s actually a remarkable film – it’s rare to fall into lethargy while watching. The dull and disgusting spectacle parasitizes the more atmospheric movie brother, but the test of adequacy does not pass: the only thing that this film can achieve with its existence is to scare away the few fans of the original Astral who bite at the loud title.
"Astral." New Dimension - low-budget mystical horror seeks to interest fans of astral projections, demonic manifestations and other similar things, but in fact the film turned out to be rather weak, inconclusive and to some extent even boring. The picture is the debut for the aspiring screenwriter, producer and director Chris Moole, behind whom there are only a few short films.
In the story, a college student during lectures on the topic of otherworldly phenomena begins to seriously immerse himself in the subject, hoping to soon be in the astral to meet with her dead mother, who committed suicide many years ago. And everything would be fine, but after another attempt to get out of the body, the hero notices that he is being pursued by a dark spirit, which he released through his actions.
Of course, without false modesty, we can say that a huge number of films have already been shot on such a topic, so this picture is rather ineptly stepping on the heels of other more successful works with a similar plot. Usually novice directors who want to stand out among their colleagues tend to surprise with an original story or an author’s approach to the implementation of a project. But in this case, the director did absolutely nothing to at least somehow interest the potential viewer. The secondary plot is built almost on solid cliches and cliches. The production itself looks weak, fearless and to some extent even amateur. Of course, you can refer to a small budget, but even with big money, such a story would definitely not look better. It is worth noting that the film “Astral” in the United States was released immediately on DVD, but we have rolled on theaters, so those who pay attention to such a detail, keep this in mind.
As for the cast, the main role is played by Frank Dillane, the young star of the acclaimed series Fear the Walking Dead. But it is worth mentioning that with all the efforts of the actor, there will be no spectator empathy as such, so nothing supernatural should be expected. The guy in the series that in the film plays absolutely the same and with the same forever uncut and greasy hair, spitting on all the principles of personal hygiene: shower does not take, sleeps in clothes and does not even change it the next day. Don’t say that, but such heroes cause quite strong antipathy and even dislike. But, despite all the impenetrable darkness of the boring narrative, the picture still has a ray of light in the dark realm, thanks to which it becomes not so unbearable to watch this creation. The film stars aspiring actress Vanessa Grass, who is remembered by many for her spectacular presence in the recent horror movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Leather face, where she, despite the constant fountains of blood, radiated endless eroticism and beauty. Of course, in the new film everything looks quite modest and simple, but even with her weak acting, it is a pleasure to watch her.
In general, the picture is absolutely not necessary to view, but if you are a big fan of the world of demons and various types of spiritualism, then a pleasant view.
4 out of 10
They say, “You lie, you lie, and you tell the truth.” For almost a decade, our distributors have referred to James Wan’s Insidious franchise as “The Astral.” Here we go! The film about demons from other dimensions, which is called “Astral”! But our localizers are not used to despair, calling the tape “Astral:” A new dimension", at the same time "creating up" to a completely unrelated to the film popular franchise. And the astral with them...
Beginning director Chris Moole and his brother Michael Moole wrote a film about a student discovering a dangerous occult practice, based on his own feelings - Michael wrote a book about the history of mankind (!), and among historical rituals and cults drew attention to the "astral projection": a way to go beyond his body and feel the "new dimensions" of being. As a result, Michael received several unpleasant hallucinations, including a sense of the presence of some creepy in his bed, plus strange scratches on the floor. This was enough for his brother Chris, who shot several short films, to launch a film on this topic.
It is worth applauding the project skills of the brothers: they managed not only to get permission to shoot at one of the most beautiful universities in England – Royal Holloway University – in the last days of the summer holidays, but also coped with shooting in 12 days (!), which gives the output of about 7-8 minutes a day. Such a number of “linear meters” usually leads to “serial” quality, but – no – the film has a professional “delicious” picture, pleasing views of university walls and libraries, good special effects for an “indie” film and cute cast. Frank Dillane has already visited the shoes of a young Voldemort in the sixth series of Harry Potter and starred in 44 episodes of the spin-off series Fear the Walking Dead. Other actors are not so famous - Vanessa Grass (girlfriend of the hero) starred in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Leatherface" and Trevor White (teacher) starred in... "The Revolt from Hell 6." The rest of the actors are not annoying and remain within their role: a cheerful African-American friend, a boring friend, a nerdy doctor, a pathetic aunt-medium.
In general, the ingredients in the film are good. Except one. Unfortunately, even a personal vivid experience is not enough to make a good “watchable” movie. The script of “Astral: New Dimensions” sins repetitions – we have to watch the night shooting in the hero’s bedroom several times, and it is deadly tired since the time of “Paranormal phenomena”. He meets with the doctor several times to talk about the same thing. He discusses astral with friends several times. It gives the impression of a short film, “filled” with empty dialogues and scenes to the full meter. As a result, we hear people say, ‘Did you like the sequel?’ - Oh, yes, it is better than the original! (about what and why, we will never know). The plot introduces a whole bunch of heroes, just disappearing in the middle of the film - the teacher, the friends of the hero. Although we were told several times that “the danger now threatens not only the one who discovered the astral, but also the people around him.”
But the ending works the worst. Many viewers may feel that the film was cut off for the last 20 minutes, and just cut off the film at a random place. Maybe this is just a consequence of the “Stakhanov” shooting in 12 days? You can’t leave the audience in such disappointment! Thank you for the New Dimension, but we prefer the Old Dimension. The one that “sneaks” and does not disappoint the expectations of the audience.
The main character's mother commits suicide after communicating with spirits. What her son does. Looking for ways to leave the physical body. Logical.
If it is not logical, it is not interesting. Again, the game fails. It seems that the hero is just parallel to what is happening. Though he's kind of "motivated." There are demons around, you know.
"Interestingly," the characters are looking for a way to go astral. Just googling. And now you can find anything on the Internet. Well, they didn't come across the "Battle of psychics."
I’ve never seen such an exorcism movie. Usually in films of this genre, the process of exile is accompanied by a hurricane, screams, struggle in the end.
And remember how long the heroes of other films tried to find out the name of the demon. I should have just asked.
There are also superfluous characters and plot-driven characters. There are no charismatic heroes at all. But the timing is followed.
In general, there is nothing interesting in the film. Parasitization on the franchise.
After watching this masterpiece of film art, I wondered: “Why was it called ‘Astral: The New Dimension’?” After all, this title raised the level of expectations from this film, and this, in my opinion, ruined it.
If you discard the "brand", then the film in principle looks like. Yes, it’s a passing movie, but by no means a horror movie. Rather, this is a mystical thriller with elements of fiction, or rather, with demons that are annoying to everyone, always invading someone. The antagonist, by the way, appears at 70 minutes, before that in the film it is in principle not, and, as a consequence, the first hour in the film does not happen at all.
But if the lack of an interesting plot, we can still blame on the “formality” of the genre, then with the play of actors it will not work.
First, the characters in the film are not registered, except for a professor at the university (but he has a timekeeping of 10 minutes), the rest play the role of extras and sometimes say something.
Secondly, the stone play of these actors, all the “scary” moments in an instant become funny, because instead of the reaction of fear, the actors demonstrate pofigism, and the actress who played the role of the girl of the main character does not change facial expression at all.
Thirdly, the main character himself is just a blank without motivation and emotions. At the age of 21, he learns that his mother has died (which is strange, because she hanged herself with him), resents his father and his mother’s father, and... More in the film, the main character does nothing, but it has a timekeeping of about 70 minutes. The question is, “Why does the film need it?” You could just drop objects and move the pendulum -- nothing would have changed.
Also, there is no normal soundtrack in the film that could catch up with the atmosphere and somehow save the film.
To sum up: if you discard the prefix "astral" and do not expect something interesting from him, then you can watch once.
5 out of 10
Seeing the new "Astral" poster: A New Dimension, without hesitation, bought a ticket to enjoy one of the high-quality, in my opinion, horror films, which became some kind of “classic”, because remembering the first parts, you can say without hesitation – this is a really well-made, intimidating, creepy horror film. But what I saw literally last night, I, as a lover of the genre of “mysticism” just amazed.
Where's the Astral? I didn't see him personally. Lost interest without the main characters of the previous parts, lost history, lost absolutely everything. I tried to set myself up as much as possible to the fact that “here, here’s a little more and at least something will happen.” But 80 minutes of my life was gone. No matter how rude it may sound, but, in my opinion, the acting, the plot and the number of scary moments would be more in most of the “Russian horror films”.
The film was so boring to moviegoers that, depending on the length of the new Astral, the audience began to find a comedy in this film. After all, the acting was so funny, which created the feeling that the actors are about to laugh themselves, because it is impossible to believe in this nonsense in which they are filmed.
For all those who still think to go and see this "masterpiece" - for the whole film there was only one "screener", which I personally estimate at 2 / 10 maximum, and that's it. As another reviewer said, “I have never seen such a fast ritual.”
When the moment of the rite began, the last hope in me died, at least for some creepy moment in the film, but the whole "rite" took the writers about forty seconds of time. It was at that moment that the whole room thought, “Ha ha, is that all?”
You won't believe it. That was it. Question asked. Why make such a disgusting film, embarrassing the famous title of the film - Astral?
P.S. I'm very afraid to see the amount that's been allocated to this movie. The film is produced and directed by Chris Mool. During his career, he made two films. One is an 8-minute short film and the other is The Astral. Draw conclusions, friends.
Astral immediately catches the eye with the name - is it a continuation? No, no sequel and no connection. Except, of course, a bunch of borrowings from the original Astrals.
The length of the film is 80 minutes, so what can you show? Screaming? But no, even a hint of screamers you will not see here, moreover, there is no ghost from the poster in the film either. The film reveals a certain plot that could be laid in half an hour without useless chatter, which tells nothing, leads to nothing - no one needs.
There are few borrowings of the Scrimers, so their implementation is a masterpiece - the appearance of a face behind the shoulder from the astral, sitting at the table of spiritualistic sessions from the second astral, a shadow jacket from the fourth, ghosts that appear / disappear when the lights are turned off / turned on (from another horror film) - all this is realized so ridiculous that even the money that was spent on tickets seems pathetic. The indistinct tense soundtrack, which would look good in intriguing moments, is set here in peaceful scenes that are not interested in anything but this soundtrack.
A lot of moments are flushed down the toilet, I will use Bazhenov’s definition of “Bondarchuk guns”. Are friends seeing shadows too? Maybe we should link something to this? No, that's enough. The girl who appeared in the life of the hero, maybe she will somehow affect the course of the film, become an object around which motivation will begin to revolve – no, she just is. Mother and son wore a pendant, and it would seem that in the final scene, when she is ripped off, the demon retreats, maybe we can talk about her? No, we won't, why? Why did my mother die, will anyone explain? Nope. There are no answers to these questions in the film.
The astral itself on the film is present for a minute, it is a smoky place without any horrors, explanations, oppressive atmosphere, there is nothing there except a box with this suspension and a horned demon. Ah, yes, the clairvoyant mentioned that it is an evil spirit, a jinn, who very much resembles Dahaka of the Prince of Persia. Coincidence? I don't think they've saved a lot on the horror aspect.
The motivation of the characters is almost unclear, they all study, apparently, at the Department of Theoretical Fantasy, where they teach occult sciences and the library is filled with pseudoscientific literature. Two out of five exist only to say that all the weirdos, and the rest are looking for the way to the astral.
With 10 minutes to go, I didn’t even believe the movie was going to end. As a result, a crumpled ending without explanation and the laughter of the hall.
1 in 10
I don’t recommend this film to anyone, even for the sake of reading it. There is an original series with a good plot, twists, twists and atmosphere.
Astral: A New Dimension is not Astral 5, but the debut film of Briton Chris Moole.
What do we got? A typical British university, which looks like a real castle, and students study there (judging by the shooting) two hundred maximum. But it doesn't matter. We are not told what specialty the heroes study, but there are disciplines related to the occult. A dream, not a life (for lovers of mysticism). But it doesn't matter. So, by the way, the creators believe that their position in relation to everything is “important”. They did not bother to give the characters at least some characters, even stereotyped ones. I could not empathize (or vice versa) with the main character, he is absolutely unideal, implausible and uninteresting.
The plot can be laid in fifteen minutes, but the creators stretched "Astral: A new dimension for a full hour and a half. To do this, they stretched time out of the blue, starting from the tenth minute of the film. Example. The lecturer recited the text on his occult discipline, completed the pair. What was the need to add another thirty seconds about a girl bringing him coffee and he thanking her? That's the whole movie. Big pauses between replicas, a bunch of empty dialogues, unnecessary scenes like discussions of friends of the main character of the question of going to a party and the like.
There is no fear in the picture. Watch "The Astral: The new dimension is boring and hard. Ideological emptiness presses on the viewer. Out of an hour and a half of seventy-five minutes nothing happens, empty chatter and walking. To murmur that during the hero's sleep, the pendulum swung by itself, really? A more lubricated and uninteresting ending was difficult to come up with. It is impossible to watch an exorcism without tears.
Actors. Very bad. Another reviewer very correctly noted: Frank Dillane the whole film goes with an "unbreakable" face. I can say the same about Vanessa Grass. It seems that her character, unlike the main character, should not be ready to see the supernatural, but you can not tell by her.
I'd rather watch the Shannan Doherty horror movies. Astral: A New Dimension is a bad movie. I do not recommend it to anyone.
The level of the genre of mystical horrors is rapidly falling. And if many films of this genre I will stretch to call good, then this picture is not even close to such.
Lured by a natural name. I thought it was something like a spin-off of the famous quadrology. However, I began to worry about the quality of this creation even before viewing, the timing is too short. But I decided to watch.
Yeah, it's been a long time. It doesn't smell like horror, it's some weird drama. In 80 minutes of the movie, will I remember something that fascinated me? No way. Standard beginning with a mysterious death. Then came the stupid and boring middle. Such a fat piece of worthless talk and adventure. Looking at these very sad pictures is hard. Desperately struggling with sleep, I waited for the 60-minute mark. Sixty minutes! Nothing happened in the movie. Absolutely. Shooting yourself sleeping with a lighthouse swinging doesn't count, it's nothing at all. And then something starts to start, I think maybe I will see some interesting moment. But for the remaining 20 minutes, it became even more depressing. Because I never had such a weak and stupid ending in any horror movie. This is the most beautiful sight! Together with all this, the film has a bad picture. Gray and repulsive. There is no desire to look at such an image.
The actors were not impressed either. The main character, a hairy eccentric, with an unbreakable face passed all 80 minutes, carrying complete nonsense. His motives are completely unclear. It seems that the creators are weak amateurs and simply can not build a full picture of the film they conceived. In general, wherever you spit - solid minuses. There were no positives in the film.
Well, the weakest fragment of the picture is the rite of exorcism (if you can call it that). I've never seen such a fast ritual before. One is done. Remembering the best representative of the genre, namely Exorcist, there the ceremony lasted almost half of the film. Here. Besides, the rite was performed by a fortune teller, not a clergyman, as it seems proper.
Do not look at this nonsense for any rugs! Revisit any part of the Astral with Lin Shay, but don’t waste your time on this nonsense.
1 out of 10