'The Maus' drew me into seeing it, with a cool poster/cover, an intriguing if unoriginal premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive.

It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws are here present in those films, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'The Maus' is weak, with many huge problems and not a lot to recommend, not irredeemable but way off from what it could have been (guilty pleasure fun if not much else).

Lets start with the positive. The scenery is atmospheric and spooky, despite the rather direct to video schlocky way it's generally shot (apart from the odd nice one) and edited, it was very clear that the film was made in a rush with no care or enthusiasm.

Acting could have been far worse.

Going on further to the negatives, the story does feel over-stretched and is paper thin to plotless-ness and borderline incoherence, as well as under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less unsettled and never gaining momentum. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates.

Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The effects are ropy at best and the sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions)

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling while the pace and film drags on forever, never recovering until finally getting slightly intriguing to the ending when something sort of finally happens. Even the ending however is botched, due to being so anti-climactic and ludicrous. Found too many of the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense.

A lot of 'The Maus' has underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you shocked are far from creative or unsettling.

There is not enough threat here and what there is of it tends to be used poorly, while the horror elements are unimaginative and are more odd than scary, completely failing to show any sense of horror. Some badly sagging momentum too and a lot of weirdness. The direction is leaden, got the sense their heart was not in it.

Concluding, weak. 3/10 Bethany Cox

Sometimes movies would be served better if they wouldn't be so long. One example is right here. It feels quite stretched and unnecessarily long. There are also scenes in this that are quite disturbing to watch. Now that is up to the viewer to decide how they feel about that.

Maus or Mouse as the movie elaborates quite early for people not fluent in German. The filmmakers chose that title for a reason. Again the viewer might care or not, that this is the first hint at what you are about to watch. Quite clever I'd say and a bit of a shame the movie does not live up to it entirely. The cliches that are being used and served really don't help. I for one would have loved some ambiguity in it - unfortunately that is not the case. The movie is still intriguing and well shot overall

The Maus: Confused and confusing film about a couple. a Bosnian woman and her German boyfriend, whose car breaks down on a road on the midst of a Bosnian forest. They appear to wander into a minefield but the woman's dog who isn't actually with them is blown up. They encounter two Serbian men who attack them but this appears (along with the dog incident) to be the woman hallucinating about past events when her family were murdered in the 1990s. Then they really seem to be attacked by two Serbs.

The woman also has an amulet which has the power to summon up a spirit to help her. Or is she just imagining all of this? Is she suffering from PTSD? I don't know and I don't think the screenwriter or the director did either. Some very disturbing scenes but an absence of shocks. 5/10. On Netflix.