Review: To Jennifer (2013)

First I´d like to thank James Cullen Bressack for contacting me and providing me with a screener.
Joey (Chuck Pappas) suspects his girlfriend of two years, Jennifer (Jessica Cameron), is cheating on him. He is so convinced that he enlists the help of his cousin Steven (James Cullen Bressack) to create a Video Diary of his attempt to catch her in the act as well as to document the heartbreak she is putting him through. In an attempt to make her feel guilty, he intends to give this tape to her. To Jennifer is written by Chuck Pappas and James Cullen Bressack who also is the director. The acting is good and in some parts very good (Chuck Pappas) as some scenes feels natural and even unscripted. There´s lots of shaky cam, worthy of note is that To Jennifer is entirely shot on IPHONE 5. The pacing is slow, there´s a long build up as Joey and Steven are on their way to Jennifer. Some viewers might be a bit put off by the very slow pace and I honestly had a bit of a problem with it but it it serves as a build up towards the climax and slowly we start to realise that all is not well with Joey (won´t tell you more than that). There´s very brief gore, practical fx. There is no T and A in this.
This review is based upon a passwordprotected online screener provided by James Cullen Bressack.
Rating: 4 out of 7. This is the third feature film by James Cullen Bressack, the writer and director of the film Hate Crime, and he has quickly established himself as one of my favorite new directors on the indie horror front. This is different from his earlier efforts in that it´s more drama with influences of thriller than horror. We get none of graphic violence of My Pure Joy (2011) or the relentless viciousness of Hate Crime (2013) and although I like and appreciate that he tries taking another route the problem with To Jennifer is there isn´t much happening until the last twenty minutes or so. That said To Jennifer isn´t a bad movie, just muster a little patience and take the time to check it out.

/JL