Death Sentences Review

Death Sentences is a 2020 feature film written and directed by Joe Leone. The review screener of this film was sent courtesy of Midnight Releasing.

A low budget indie horror film that unfortunately shows these monetary limitations from the very beginning, Death Sentences challenges some age-old formulas but never gains solid footing throughout.

The best thing about this feature film has to be the script from which it is derived from. It absolutely takes some interesting risks by framing a whodunnit out of what would just be a haunted cabin in the woods story. It then subverts expectations leading to an ending fitting of a late 2000s slasher film.

The problem really lies at the feet of the production value and the acting. Starting with the production as a whole, this was a film made for a little over ten thousand dollars, but it is sad to report that even this may seem like an overcalculation of where the money for the film went. The low-quality consumer level visual fidelity really holds everything back, with a frame rate that looks closer to either 30 or 60fps, taking away any semblance of cinematic styling.

For the acting our lead Arabella as played by Remiara Eve is suitable enough but always feels like she is rushing through to get shots done as quickly as possible for efficient filmmaking. For everyone else it feels pretty much the same, with the ghostly apparition Vivian as played by Arselajada Buraku doing her best to appear unhinged but the execution never quite lands.

The cheesy visual effects and sound design don’t really lend any favors to the film either, with most moments having no depth to them, leaving it all feeling hollow as a result. That is not to mention the easy mistakes that one may spot when viewing the picture, including visible lavalier microphones, cuts that don’t match on action, and dialogue that isn’t synched properly in some scenes.

What comes together here is inevitably an interesting story with some genuinely good lines and even some solid humor. But it all needed more time to cook in the oven, as it were.

Death Sentences just fails to launch out of the gate and while it picks up some steam by the second and most notably third acts, the wait time to get there is just a little too far from where we began to hold interest. With more time to film and a larger budget to provide better visuals there is a version of the movie that really can deliver more on its lofty ambitions. However, with all the elements pulling it down, what we have is ultimately disappointing.

Death Sentences was sent courtesy of Midnight Releasing.

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