Murdered by a Bad Review

I am here to say amazinggg job! This is 100% a good review, please don't show up at my house.

The immediate shots outside felt tense, then cutting to the family with starkly different sound drew me in.

And then the retribution! The cheese for the cheese. And as soon as I heard the words "mind blown," I was like oh no.

You guys nailed comedy horror! I love a scene that goes on too long. Like an appropriate and funny amount of too long. And the distant beach scene with the far away sound etc.

All your shots and sound supported the story, and it was written and acted well.

Also on a personal note, I make creative content that goes online, and there's always a few comments that just get ya, so watching this was carthartic x)

Honesty Stu and team this is probably the best thing you have ever done in this competition as you had my partner and I absolutely cackling.

A very meta film, but so over the top that it calls to mind glorious straight to VHS classics like KILLING SPREE and WOODCHIPPER MASSACRE, Everything Sticks run with the idea of a film maker with an ego as fragile as eggshells taking revenge on poor reviews of their films.

And they run with this straightforward and to the point. Hard. The performances are committed, the edit is smooth, audio is clean and the film has some fantastic one-liners.

Coverage is great as well serving up a variety of locations that gave the film brightness and buoyancy.

I think for me the one weapon that didn't work quite as effectively as the others was the gun but that's because the more practical hands on weapons allowed the splatter and silly gratuitous violence shine in an enjoyable number 8 wire kind of way.

Look it didn't reinvent the wheel but it was a seriously good time, and the ending was absolutely killer. Big fan of this one.

I love how you made reviews of your last film the central element in this year's film, that was a very funny idea that worked well for the plot, and also made it even more humorous in that you were making fun of yourselves. The ending was brilliant, first the unexpected reverse-murder, which would have been a satisfying enough ending in itself, but then the negative review of the murder gave a surprise second layer of hilarious satisfaction to the ending.

This film felt like getting shot to death by a machine gun in the Halswell Quarry 😉

What a CROWD PLEASER!!! This was very metaman! Loved everything about it! This is what the 48hours is all about, and without teams like EverythingSticks, the whole thing would be a bit more boring. There's just something SO funny about hyper violence over something so small. The long shot with the garden tool kill was BRILLIANT! Shine on you crazy diamond!

What a great short film! Many laughs were had here watching this one in the heats. Loved the overly-long shot.
As someone who has also received a share of ridiculous online comments in the past, this was very satisfying to watch :)

In what is undoubtedly Everything Sticks’ finest work yet, Murdered by a Bad Review had me struggling to contain my laughter long before the first frame was even shown.

Anyone who was following the screening room politics/drama around certain Christchurch films last year will already have had some indication of what they were in for. And oh boy it did not disappoint.

What I particularly loved about this film is rather than taking the easy route and being mean-spirited, it somehow managed to be both self-deprecating and playfully spiteful. It was an embodiment of how it *feels* to receive a negative review on something you’ve poured your heart and soul into. Wonderful use of genre that would have fit equally well into Revenge.

I also appreciate its willingness to double down on 48 hours lore, lean into the meta and take a giant swing. I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it.

This film is excellent! Great sound, editing, composition and it matched the genre perfectly.
You had a range of cool locations, and there was genuine excitement as the audience was looking forward to the next grizzly victim.
Absolutely loved it!
Maybe the next one could be aimed at whoever committed the unforgivable crime of overlooking this masterpiece and omitting if from the shortlist. Huge mistake on their part...
Love your work!

48Hours violence doesn't get much more gratuitous than this! The extended hoe murder has us laughing so hard. So much blood splatter! And the tongue is so horrifying. Perfectly executed comedy horror, well done!

A brilliant concept. Some brilliant in-jokes. Some great one-liners. Perfectly tailored to the 48Hours audience. I love this film.

If you want to see something trippy, watch 5:09 in this YouTube video with closed captions turned on.

Hmmmmm, do we need to hold our tongues at the risk of certain death?! Lucky for us, this was really great, so we can celebrate its achievement rather than say anything that puts us at risk of a face full of cheese (Although if you ask Rachel, she'd probably say I wouldn't mind to go out that way, I love cheese).

This concept is great - a big swing to go with a Chch in-house joke this year! Could've gone either way, and we'd be lying if we said we weren't nervous about it when we saw the title come up hahaha, but it paid off! You join the likes of Herms or Neato with the self referential humour. The references are well thought through, it's a healthy dose of cheeky but well intended, so nice job.

It's a shame this didn't make shortlist. Once again Everything Sticks finds themselves with a film that half way through the viewings we were pretty confident would stay in the top 25, and then it slowly got put out by films of a similar quality as far shooting, editing and pace, but just had bit more going on, as opposed to kill 1, kill 2, kill 3 and then kill to finish.

Each killing is creative, entertaining and particularly that first kill is a great blend of comedy-horror, but by the end, it's unfortunately not had enough to chew on for us to be able to justify getting it any higher. We were gutted, because this was one of the top films to get a huge crowd reaction at Little A, and is an example of the stark difference between watching a film with a crowd vs alone in your living room. In this case, because the crowd was the chch 48hours community, this film went absolutely off, and I was stoked for you! It was a well deserved celebration.

THE BEST THING: By far the most entertaining and hilarious film from this team, a greatly appreciated contribution to the heats.

THE NEXT THING: It kind of depends on your goal. Continue to entertain the crowd like you did this year with something outrageous but risky for judging, or jump back into some of those core things needed to get your script elevated from a one beat idea to something with more to say. Personally, this is my favourite Everything Sticks film to date, so I'd gladly take more of this if you felt like it, but I know you have ambition! So maybe next year will be the one! I hope so!