Among Friends (2012) – 4 (IMDb 4.4) – Horror, Comedy (USA)
I hate to do this because I think Danielle Harris is a very cool and cute horror actress, however her directing skills aren’t nearly as praise-worthy. Among Friends is an unoriginal, tired and clichéd horror films that isn’t scary or funny. Unfortunately almost everything about this movie is bad and not all of it is Harris’ fault of course, but man, what a train-wreck. The story follows a bunch of young adults that gather together for some sort of reunion only to find out that their host is a completely deranged maniac. The concept per se is fairly interesting (although not new or anything), but what the film does is standard genre fare. There’s not enough gore or scares in my opinion. You never really care about the characters, as you don’t know them very well and most of them seem to be horrible people. At the end of the day if you can’t sympathize with anyone in the film, what are the stakes? There are however some good things about the film as well. Not all the acting is bad, there are some cute little shots only that added a “girly” touch, I wish she had done more of that and it was good to see Danielle Harris in a cameo. Like I said I like her and I want her to succeed, I just hope she picks a more interesting project the next time. This was Harris’ directorial début and I’m sure it’s all uphill from here.