I Came By

At first I was slightly bored at watching nothing but a Netflix variation of Don't Breathe with an extremely unlikeable main character, but an unexpected turn at about the fortieth minute kept me entertained and it continued well after that; an interestingly conceived villain with the face of Hugh Bonneville. Unfortunately, the final fifteen minutes are stupid on several levels and send this otherwise decent thriller into the toilet. (04.09.2022)

A decent and inoffensive thriller from Netflix. I find director Babak Anvari to be a total bum. I suffered through his two horror flicks (Under the Shadow and Wounds), but his third film is relatively satisfying and maybe he can surprise in the future. The film focuses on a young man who breaks into rich people's houses and paints them graffiti in the living-room, but he stumbles upon something unpleasant in one gentleman's basement that could endanger him and his loved ones. Though not very original, the film is a combination of several others like Don't Breathe and various home invasion movies, but it is definitely entertaining, suspenseful, nicely shot with a fine villain (though we don't get to know as much about him as desired) and a delightful twist in the middle that is definitely unexpected. There were a couple of scares that worked well, but it's slightly disappointing that the finale isn't intense and tense enough, it's a bit of a let down. I was quite disappointed that the film avoided violence (there was one scene calling for a butchering). Anvari still has room for improvement, but for a boring evening, I Came By is good enough. 6/10. (08.09.2022)