BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE (O-RVZ MOVIE REVIEW)

Bad Times At The El Royale is a thriller film written and directed by Drew Goddard, who also written and directed the hit horror Cabin in the Woods and written other famous works such as Cloverfield, World War Z, and The Martian. The plot is set in 1969 which centered around this mysterious hotel called "El Royale" which happens to be located in between these two borders of California and Nevada of USA. The story follows about these seven (7) strangers with secretive pasts who came up to this infamous hotel and slowly reveals their own individual secret as they also discovered some shady operations involving around this mysterious hotel, the "El Royale".

I really did enjoy his last directed film which was the Cabin in the Woods. Though it may be a mashup around these famous horror films that we are so familiar with. However, the story behind it was really different and him constructing the story together with Joss Whedon really made that film somewhat an original film despite sharing some other elements from known previous horror films. When I heard this film was in the middle of the production being written and directed by this same guy, I was already excited for it and after watching it, I must say that although it's not near as good as Cabin in the Woods but it's a film that I certainly enjoyed due to its intriguing premises and good performances around the casts. I can't say too much about the plot of the film to avoid spoilers but it really is thrilling and engaging. I had so many questions that keep popping my head about "Who's these guys?", "What's this El Royale", and whatnot but eventually you will know all these truths as the film goes along. My biggest takeaway of this film were the characters. I liked how these characters were written and I also liked the interaction around these characters as they also try to dig some secrets about this mysterious hotel. The film is deep as it also explored some social context that may or may not be evident in our real-life society. Though it may not be explicitly shown from the film or not the focus of it, but it's there and you can really see it if you think deeply enough of it. But speaking of entertainment, I did enjoy the film. I liked the secretive premise of it and I liked how the story progression of it revealing more secrets around these characters and about the place. My only problem with the film is its very long running time and the meat of the story took too long to progress at the beginning of it.

OVERALL

BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE is a good thriller film with a very intriguing plot. It's a very long film so you really have to sit through like 2 hours of it but once the story starts to unfold, it will hook you and will make you want to sit through of it just to know how the film will end. I liked the performances of the casts. All of them really did a good job portraying their individual characters. The film is indeed a surprise and if you like watching films centered around a good storyline and good characters, then I recommend you to watch this one.