Don't Click (2020) - Could have been good

I've got nothing against low budget horror films - in fact, they make up most of my DVD collection.  If a story is inventive enough to grip you and use only a handful (or one!) location, then there's a good chance that it can use it's - limited - budget in new and creative ways. 'Don't Click' is definitely a low budget film about a college student who er 'indulges' in dodgy websites, but gets more than he bargained for when a supernatural website - literally - sucks him in.  And then, to make matters worse, it draws in his flatmate.

I was quite happy with that premise.  We see where they're taken straight away - a creepy, single room with no exits and foreboding lighting.  And we're introduced to the film's main 'antagonist' who kind of looks like Hellraiser's 'Pinhead' (if he was going for a job interview at a reasonably-priced men's fashion store) and he's actually quite well made-up in terms of gore.

However, the film starts to run out of ideas and, before I wrote this review, I noticed that it was based on a short film.  That makes sense.  There's clearly enough here for something shorter, but not really a full theatrical release.

The film-makers are forced to pad out the runtime with needless flashbacks which slows the pace down as opposed to moving the story forward to whatever conclusion is going to come.

The performances are okay and, as mentioned the suited nasty who resides in this 'online dimension' is actually pretty menacing, but the whole plot kind of meanders and you could probably skip the middle part because it's all just padding until the final confrontation.

This is a shame really as this could have been a nice little cult classic. 

3/10 Jabba the Hutt wipes himself down with this film