GL84 Attempting to find meaning in her world, an amateur detective finds her new small-town neighbors are the perfect opportunity to refine her skills only to stumble upon an even deadlier secret that threatens her small-town home.This one here didn't really turn out all that bad and had some decent stuff about it. What really tends to work here is the slow-broiling mystery throughout here which comes off rather nicely with the strange, odd family seeming like completely worthwhile avenue of study here that really makes for quite a nice time. The fanciful stories and traveling quips, the secretive glances and looks at each other and then the sudden slow-turn into being mysterious and somewhat intimidating lets this initiate the mystery into the fine later half here as this one manages to get that paid off in rather exciting form here as there's a lot of rather enjoyable encounters to come from how they manage to keep up their true nature in the face of the continually persecutions. That leads to plenty of fun here with the building evidence fully realized in the rather brutal encounter in the woods where the entire family is shown engaging in the stalking which is what makes for quite a fun time overall here as the night-time forest setting is put to great use here. Likewise, the family brawling in the final half is all kinds of fun with the stalking taking place on the multiple floors of the house, the brutality in the kills is appealing and it pays off the mystery quite well here. These here are enough to make this one worthwhile despite the fact that there's not much else in here. The film is more of a mystery film about her sleuthing their behavior for the majority of the film and that doesn't tend to offer very much in the way of interesting efforts here since these consist of her sitting in front of a computer piecing everything together or going off on accusations that don't really amount to much throughout here in terms of exciting sequences since nothing happens until the end. The mystery does work, but it's not how it goes about accomplishing it which is where this one falls. As well, the film also tends to run along a big side-plot about her friend and how he's carrying on in life without her, and despite this attempting to stir up a rather noticeable amount of teen-angst drama about it there's just nothing really interesting about them due to the low-key nature of their discussions really bringing anything about them. Otherwise, this here was pretty decent overall.Rated R: Extreme Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Brief Full Nudity and rampant drug use and references.

BA_Harrison Bored stoner Elfie Hopkins (Jaime Winston) tries to make village life a little more interesting by dabbling in amateur detective work, investigating the lives of other locals with a little help from fellow weed-toker Dylan (Aneurin Barnard). When a sophisticated city family, The Gammons, moves into the house next door, Elfie's investigative nature begins to tell her something isn't quite right with her new neighbours. Digging into their background, she uncovers a horrific secret that puts the lives of her nearest and dearest in mortal danger.It took me a while to warm to Elfie Hopkins: at first I found the central character rather irritating, Jaime Winston's attempts at cool and quirky seeming just a little too calculated to appeal to the cult movie contingent (her lovable slacker routine reminding me a little of Simon Pegg in Shaun of the Dead). But as the story progressed, the film gradually started to grow on me, Winston's appeal winning through, the whimsical nature of the story and creepy antagonists slowly getting under the skin. By the time all becomes clear for the final act, I actually found myself enjoying proceedings. The finalé is a real crowd-pleaser, Elfie tooling up for a revenge-driven gore-fest that really gets the blood pumping.To sum up: the film's offbeat and rather relaxed approach makes it hard to get involved, but perseverance pays off, with a particularly fun finish. A sequel with Elfie investigating even more outlandish situations wouldn't be entirely unwelcome. 6/10, although a repeat viewing might see me bump my rating up to 7.

stevepat100 This low budget movie succeeds as an entertaining horror film. I am giving it a 9 to counter other unreasonably low reviews. Casting was very good hence nice acting all around. While the story, new next door neighbors who have have deep dark and possibly deadly secrets, has been seen many times before that does not diminish the fun of this original re-telling. Elfie and her side-kick, who are about 18 years old, seem a bit beyond their teen years which makes for a more satisfying adult viewing. Characters are developed including Elfie's major baggage and the stoner angle plays well into the story line. The first half of the film's build-up leads to the FUN roller coaster ride of splashy, classic and 'tasteful' blood and gore finale. Clearly Elfie is a 21st century British version of Nancy Drew. Forget the thumbs down reviews, kick back and give Elsie a chance. Here's looking forward to Elfie's next case! Go Elfie Go.

KineticSeoul From the DVD cover it seems like a gruesome slaughter fest of a movie. But that is far from it, in fact I needed to sit through a very slow paced mundane amateur detective plot to get to those scenes. And even when it got to it, there really isn't any shock factor. The cover for the DVD case for this movie is false marketing. It has two guys with shot guns next to the female protagonist and they aren't even pivotal to the plot. The nerdy sidekick in the movie is with the protagonist most of the way through, helping her with her own investigation and crap. But I guess they didn't put him on the cover cause they wanted the movie to appear all badass. The build up is just plain dull and bored me to tears and the protagonist Elfie is just not very likable. And I personally didn't care what happened to her. A character that is brash and smug can be somewhat likable but that isn't the case here. The story is basically about a mysterious family moving into the neighborhood and that family looks like they came off the set of "Twilight". With a husband that acts like a vampire, to a Gothic wife, to a vampire wannabe son that is into shooting and hunting, and a daughter that dresses up like a doll and collects Japanese stuff. And when Elfie sees couple of oddity inside the mysterious family she decides to stick her nose in. And goes about it in a very amateur way. Nothing is entertaining, clever or thrilling about this movie. There are no twist and you can literally predict how everything is going to play out for the most part. And the climax is just plain dumb. In fact a lot of stuff in this flick and scenarios doesn't make much sense. It was just almost unbearable to sit through the build up and the climax isn't even worth it. There is better mystery thrillers so pass on this one. Not even worth the rent. The movie is about a hour and a half long but felt way longer when it came to the running time. Oh the sidekick reminded me of Elijah Wood and he was alright but as for the main protagonist not so much.2/10