Mercy (2014) Reviews

• Not THAT bad - actually quite watchable

  jacques772015-11-21

  If I had read the reviews on IMDb before watching the film, I probably would have expected much worse than what I got. It is not good enough for main screen release or for any Top 100 lists, but contrary to most of the reviews I have seen here, I actually did find the movie quite watchable - I have seen MUCH WORSE with much better ratings. The story runs at a steady pace and I never found myself distracted or watching the clock. I probably would not have been happy if I had to pay at a cinema to watch this, but as an online release, I was more than satisfied with the film's 1970's feel and subtle dramatic undertones. I can't really say that I ever felt scared as such, but though the film does play out like a horror version of a Hallmark Movie, it definitely did have a sinister creepy quality. In all, the production value was worthy of a straight to internet release. I did not expect more. I think a lot of bad reviews can be attributed that people expect much more and then feel disappointed that they did not get it. When such a short piece if prose gets adapted for screen, we can hardly expect The Shining. Maybe it helped that I did not read the short story before seeing the film. Maybe I just sometimes enjoy to watch something uncomplicated by weaves of b and c story lines. Be it what it may…I found this far more enjoyable than many other horror flicks that has made it into mainstream release.

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• Better. Could have been a lot tho!

  gothic-fiction2014-10-21

  Yesterday I was watching "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" and I couldn't believe the actors involved in that production. Tonight I got to see "Mercy" and again it came as a big surprise the amount of known actors that participated in the movie. I hope that this is not a retire plan for good actors, but more of a transition, a different path, a way of completing their journey, cause let's face it, not a lot of people get involved with horrors nowadays. Mercy is good, it starts slow, it even acts cheap or maybe dumb at times, but it is to fool you. To make you lower your expectations, caught you off guard and then strike! Not a masterpiece by all means, but if you are into horrors, you should see this. A lot more complex than your usual, far from a low budget film and a very believable acting. I think it could go hand in hand with The Dark (2005) because it is better than most, it shows a lot of potential, a darker path, a better film. One of the things I loved the most is that Mercy has only 1 hour and 18 minutes, they didn't bother to stretch it more than needed, it was a simple plan, a fast and well done execution and that's that. Finally, people who realized that it is best to show quality and not quantity! Mercy won't spook you, scare you, but will build suspense around you and will deliver on other chapters. You just need to be a horror fan looking for different kind of work here. I for one enjoyed it. Cheers!

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• Not bad (really!) for straight to VHS

  ArchonCinemaReviews2014-12-16

  Mercy is a horror story that plays on typical human fears with a twist, In quintessential Stephen King fashion. Matt Greenberg adapts King's short story Gramma into the screenplay for the horror film Mercy. George is the undeniable favorite grandson to his grandmother Mercy. His mother along with his brother must act as caretaker when Mercy unexpectedly is stricken ill and requires constant care. Inexplicably odd and mysterious occurrences seem to revolve around his grandmother and George rushes to save her. As a horror fanatic, Stephen King represents the worst aspect of horror. I find his writings and stories to be horridly cliché exasperated by the fact that King so desperately tries to twist and surprise his readers when the ending can be seen a mile away. Interestingly, Mercy is a well paced suspenseful horror in which few stereotypical scares are used until the final reveal. The horror lies in the unveiling of truth through ominous and foreboding layers and well utilized complementary music. Shirley Knight is incredibly creepy as Mercy, the potentially possessed grandmother. The children and characters themselves are smarter than most adults in horror movies. Chandler Riggs is the main character George, and significantly younger in this film than he is on the Walking Dead. This leads me to assume that the film sat shelves for some time before being made available. Mercy doesn't really add anything new to the genre which is probably the explanation but all in all, it is not a terrible horror movie. For more FULL reviews of all the RECENT releases, please check out our WEBSITE.

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• A Complete Mess

  claudio_carvalho2015-04-04

  I usually write a synopsis in the beginning of any review to give a glimpse of the plot to the readers. Unfortunately I will not write the summary of this movie simply because I did not understand it, what is frustrating for an horror movie. The screenplay is a mess and hard to understand the plot. The atmosphere is creepy, but after spending 79 minutes running time, I did not understand what happened. In the end, is grandma good or evil? Who is Hastur? Is Jim Swann George's father? Why did he threaten the boy with a gun? Sorry but this movie is a creepy garbage. Chandler Riggs should have stayed in "The Walking Dead" only. My vote is one (awfull). Title (Brazil): "Mercy"

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• Somebody, please, put grandma out of her misery!

  Coventry2018-03-06

  Admittedly I didn't have high hopes for liking "Mercy", and this was based on a couple of indicators. The plot is adapted from a largely unknown short story by Stephen King (= the author is overrated and most of his short stories are unimpressive) and the lead character is a 10-year-old kid whose first line in the film is: "my grandmother has always been my best friend." But it turned out to be better than I expected, particularly thanks to a series of weird and inexplicable story aspects and a surprisingly sinister atmosphere throughout. Single mom Rebecca (beautiful Frances O'Conner of "The Missing") is forced to move back to her remote parental house, along with her two teenage sons, because her mother requires constant care during her recovery of a stroke. There always circulated strange and morbid stories about grandma Mercy. When she was a beautiful 20-year-old woman, she couldn't get children and this nearly drove her insane. Suddenly one day, after mysteriously having vanished over the hills, she's expecting triplets! Shortly after the babies were born her husband died, supposedly in a freak accident where he split his own head in two with an axe (!) and two of her three children are mentally unstable. Now, at the end of her life, grandma Mercy still seems to be possessed with an evil entity. Is this "Hastur", who she keeps driveling about, the demon who impregnated her and what impact does the bloodline have on her grandson George? It's safe to state that "Mercy" is better and more effective in raising eerie topics than at answering vital plot questions and ensuring continuity. The entire climax is a mess and I, for one, didn't really understood what was going on. Some things are spooky but don't make the slightest bit of sense, like George talking to a cute but dead girl from his neighborhood or Dylan McDermott patiently waiting for something to happen. Shirley Knight, as grandma Mercy, is more dead than alive for most of the film's running time, so it would have been so much easier if the family opted for euthanasia.

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