SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Develiker terrible... so disappointed.

Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Claudio Carvalho The little girl Stephanie (Shree Crooks) is living alone in the house of her family apparently left behind by her parents Eric (Frank Grillo) and Jane (Anna Torv). Her older brother Paul (Jonah Beres), who was supposed to take care of her, is dead on his bed. During the night, Stephanie has nightmares and is scared by an invisible monster. One night, her mother and her father return home and explain to Stephanie that they fled afraid of the monster. What is the mysterious monster?"Stephanie" is a very creepy film with a surprising ending. The great attraction is certainly the excellent Anna "Fringe" Torv, but Shree Crooks steals the film with a top-notch performance. Frank Grillo completes the lead trio with the usual great performance. The screenplay is very well written, keeping the mystery until the very ending. The direction is also precise, disclosing the story in an adequate pace and supported by excellent cinematography and lighting. The special effects are really scary. For a low-budget movie, "Stephanie" is a magnificent surprise. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): Not Available

lavatch As a horror film, "Stephanie" was very slow in developing as it opened with a protracted sequence of a little girl struggling in the kitchen to make a smoothie in a blender. In appeared as though she might be a latch-key child and that this film would be recycling "Home Alone." Then, there was a plot twist that turned this bizarre drama into a most unpleasant film viewing experience.If there is a theme to the film, it might be summarized in the expression "the beast within." Apparently, a worldwide epidemic of monsters has invaded the psychés of young kids, destroying the moral and physical fabric of planet earth in the shape of what should be our future: our children. Much of the film's action is left vague with the nebulous "protocol" that is recommend for parents to deal with their unruly children. Other loose plot strands included what ever happened to Mr. Hooper? And why did little Stephanie suddenly turn on her little bro Paul?The film is worth comparing to a far superior Twilight Zone episode from 1961. The program is titled "It's a Good Life," and it includes an unforgettable performance by little Billy Mumy as a child with vast mental powers and who is not afraid to use them. This 30-minute television episode packed a greater emotional punch than the entirety of "Stephanie." The main difference was that in the creepy Billy Mumy character, we had a springboard for transforming the adults into exactly what they deserve, such as the memorable jack-in-the-box man. By contrast, the poor mother and father of "Stephanie" are victims who are more sinned against than sinning.The most interesting character in the film was the father figure, who genuinely cared about his daughter. In ancient Greek drama and mythology, there were timeless stories about parents and their children that resonated with universal psychological insights, such as the Oedipus archetype. "Stephanie" included no insights. It was pure sensationalism, superficial, and forgettable.

rsvp321 At least two of the negative reviews clearly indicate that they only watched the beginning of the movie, and rate it unfairly imo.This movie is excellent at involving the viewer's imagination. I put it on meant for background noise while I was multitasking, but dropped everything else to watch it.Some pretty good scare parts, and that kid is a talent that I'm sure we'll see a lot more of. The plot was also pretty good at keeping me from correctly predicting what happens next. *Watch the beginning of the end credits, too - it delivers closure.Nice to see Anna Torv again, too - I think I'll watch the first three seasons of Fringe, now lol!

Steve Mcmillan Another weird little girl movie...nothing groundbreaking. the movie centers around a small girl, who is seemingly all alone in a large house. It's hard to know what is going on at first, with the odd weird event. The movie is so darn boring it's a wonder I made it until the end. The inference is that something is in the house with her, but we never see what it is. Forty five minutes in and the paint I've been watching is dry, however nothing interesting has happened in the movie. Then the parents turn up, doubling the cast to four (including the turtle). Seemingly they had left her alone and disappeared following a world catastrophe, which is eluded to, briefly, on TV, as being some sort of virus, affecting children. It's been suggested that euthanasia is the only answer. It's revealed to Stephanie that the monster she is so scared of is her. Things go from bad to worse when the parents decide to take matters into their own hands and, well, I'll leave you to guess the rest. The acting is okay, but quite flat and the 'special effects' are pretty poor- most things are shown through a gap under the door, or behind a shower curtain which is usual fare for a low budget movie and is ineffective in providing the necessary horror in a 'horror' move. It's hard-going early on, I felt my eyes closing a few times. It was said in a review that: "Akiva Goldsman has crafted a horror thriller that's going to take audiences to unexpected places," well, if you are in the cinema, it may unexpectedly take you to McDonald's halfway through the movie, or to the cashier, to ask for your money back. The movie will certainly go where the producers of this movie least expected it to - in the bargain video section of your local supermarket.