Did like the concept a fair bit, even if it was a familiar one and has been very variably. The title 'Discarnate' (if the title was indeed 'Shapeshifter', as generic it may sound, it would have been a much better title and would have given a much better indication of what to expect) was a head-scratcher and personally wasn't sure what to make of the trailer, which indicated a quite well done monster but also very familiar ground and not being particularly scary.

So wasn't expecting very much really from 'Discarnate' but watched it anyway when it appeared as oddly enough an IMDb recommendation. Watching 'Discarnate', it is not a complete waste, is a little better than what has been said in the reviews (though do agree with a lot with what has been said) and has its moments but was more the less what was expected and indicated from the trailer and is not a particularly good film.

Beginning with the good, 'Discarnate' looks reasonably good, have seen far worse and cheaper production values recently and not only those of films made on a very low budget but also ones made on a similar one or even a bigger one. The monster surprisingly does not look bad, could actually see the effort and it looks creepy in alternative to cheap. The monster is also the component that makes the film by default, there is no unintentional humour here and there is a creepiness about it.

There were parts where the acting was okay, where the actors looked like they knew what they were doing and were giving it all they had. Josh Stewart is the best of the bunch. The music is suitably eerie.

Moving onto the too many things that were not done well, and not just a little but not at all, most of the time the acting was poor with a very stiff and disengaged lead actress. The characters are thinly sketched and there are too many instances of stupid and sometimes illogical behaviour and decision making that makes one endear to them even less. The script is as flabby as a damp squib with a lot of clunky script that never flows like silk.

Had no trouble following the story, a pretty simple one in a way, but nothing new was done with such an over-familiar premise and instead of thrills, tension or suspense (far too little of all three) there are just far too many dead stretches and plot contrivances. Making it a hopelessly bland and forced film, capped off by running badly out of steam at the end, which is nonsensical and anti-climactic.

In conclusion, not awful but very lacklustre. 4/10

DISCARNATE is another lame and cheap digital horror movie that shares a cookie-cutter feel with most other genre productions these days. It's overly dark, greyed out, featuring naturalistic performances which verge on the boring throughout. Thomas Kretschmann leads a team of researchers taking experimental drug injections that open them up to a netherworld where they're pursued by the usual CGI monster. There's really nothing much to see here other than the expected jump scares and kill scenes, and an air of tired predictability hangs over the entire proceedings.

May have spoilers.

Dr. Mason (Thomas Kretschmann) loses his son Benny (Jake Vaughn) to a monster only Benny can see. 10 years later he contacts Maya Sanchez (Nadine Velazquez) who gives him her grandmother's tea which allows a person to "open the door" and go to the other side. He convinces her to sell him the tea so they can extract the substance and create a serum for an experiment. Maya agrees, only if she can be a part of it.

The field test ends up at Dr. Mason's old home, something he doesn't reveal to the group. They all shoot up and...

The reason for the experiment was to confirm the existence of an afterlife, however, it moves off on a Nokken tangent as the two worlds co-exist.

Scares, thrills, and acting are on par for a "B" film. Thank you for not making this a found footage.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.