Movie Review: Keep Watching (2017)

Synopsis: A family returns home from vacation and is unaware of numerous cameras that have been set up in their house. During the night, they are imprisoned inside the house and while everything is broadcast live on the internet, are stalked by a pair of killers.

Who's in it? The movie stars Bella Thorne, Chandler Riggs, Ioan Gruffudd, Natalie Martinez and Maya Eshet.


Review: I came across this film Sunday morning and, thinking it looked like it would at least be entertaining, wound up watching it with my wife that evening. Unfortunately, while it wasn't the worst slasher flick I've seen, it also wasn't anything special.

I don't use the phrase "paint-by-number" very often, but that description fits this movie perfectly. It's just a very basic film that makes no real attempt to add any depth to its main characters and periodically adds additional characters, like an uncle and boyfriend, in an obvious attempt to up the body count.

My biggest pet peeve with this movie was how it went out of its way to set up additional drama but never really did anything with it. For example, the daughter, Jessie (Thorne) obviously hated her stepmother (Martinez) but it was thrown in more as a fact than as anything that had any real impact on the overall plot. The same goes with Jessie believing she is pregnant. Frankly, both those things felt a little bit like an attempt to increase the movie's runtime without any real plan to incorporate them in the main storyline.

And what is up with movies that refuse to provide closure at the end? It seems like almost every film made in the 2000s, especially in this genre, seems to be more concerned with setting up a sequel than providing an explanation about who the bad guy is, how they chose the family, etc. It would be one thing if this was a memorable film that would have me pacing the floor until the sequel came out but this movie definitely isn't that.

Final Opinion: Again, it's not the worst film I've seen. However, it's also not anything I would describe as memorable either. Honestly, it's probably not worth taking the time to watch.

My Grade: D

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