Totem

2017

Horror / Mystery / Thriller

4
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 20% · 1 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 20% · 50 ratings
IMDb Rating 4.5/10 10 2509 2.5K

supernatural

Plot summary

A teen must resort to extreme measures to protect her family from a supernatural entity.

Director

Marcel Sarmiento Photo
Marcel Sarmiento

Top cast

Lia McHugh Photo
Lia McHugh as Abby
Kerris Dorsey Photo
Kerris Dorsey as Kellie
Ahna O'Reilly Photo
Ahna O'Reilly as Robin
Aja Bair Photo
Aja Bair as Overeager Student
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
829.98 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 30 min
Seeds 3
1.67 GB
1920*1080
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 30 min
Seeds 6

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by kannibalcorpsegrinder 5 / 10

Somewhat decent effort when it matters

After he moves his new girlfriend in, a family finds a series of strange events occurring around them that convinces everyone something supernatural is plaguing the house and forces them to confront a deadly truth from their past in order to escape from the menace.This here turned out to be quite the decent enough offering. One of the more enjoyable features here is the fact that there's an incredibly strong and engaging central storyline at the heart of the film. The concept of the family unit, struggling after the weight of their mother's death and now having the new girlfriend moving in while they're clearly still adjusting to the loss is quite a fine starting point here, which is built upon here with the way this one slowly moves into the supernatural from this original setup. Basing the exploits around the house on the mother seeking revenge and not on the new woman coming into their lives which all manages to give this one a rather fun start here with the start of the supernatural coming into focus in the second half. These hauntings, ranging from the simple scenes of the ghostly figure wandering around in the background to the expected scenes of ghostly visions and flashes coming across which really gives this one quite a fun finale that comes across with all the rather enjoyable supernatural antics possible here with the with the arrival of the ghost and the full-on twist featured here that really inverts the whole rest of the film in a fine manner. That picks up the pace considerably with some absolutely fun confrontations that pack in the final half which really ends this on a high note. These here manage to hold this one up over it's few issues. The biggest problem with the film is the overall pacing, which is just rather harsh on this one. The opening drama here does take so long to get going with the drama- like feel of the material involving the adjustment to the new mother that interrupts the family dynamic to a large degree so this one has such a dour pace to start off with. That keeps the supernatural antics to a distressingly small portion of time overall here due to this buildup that it at times can feel like not even being a horror film for most of this section. Most of these are crammed into such a small section of the film that it really doesn't maintain that tone for a large portion of time and that really does hold this one down for the most part. That goes along with the last flaw here in that the film's attempts at jump-scares aren't all that impressive here as it dwells on a series of predictable scenes here, from cats jumping out of the darkness and the flash visions of the ghosts popping out of nowhere which really makes what happens quite redundant. Overall, though, it still has some decent moments though.Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.
Reviewed by jrneptune 5 / 10

Starts off holding your attention but ends up a missed opportunity

The actors did a great job from what I could tell. The director, Marcel Sarmiento, is well known for Deadgirl, which I have not seen but many where hopeful he would top. Although Marcel is credited for writing the story, the story and screenplay was written by Evan Dickson, of which it is Evan's first feature film.The movie starts off with an interesting premise and held my attention the first half. The cinematography is fine but later it becomes obvious they were working with a limited budget.Two-thirds into the movie things start to go awry and although the pace picks up I felt the story gets more unbelievable not just in decisions that are made but with distractions that make it obvious there might have been editing issues.The saving grace is there is a twist at the end that most people would not have seen coming but it was not enough for me to say it is a must see unless you are a fan of the actors or the director.
Reviewed by SnoopyStyle 5 / 10

waiting and a twist

Kellie (Kerris Dorsey) is a 17 year old who spends her energy taking care of her father James (James Tupper) and younger sister Abby. Despite her objection, James invites longtime girlfriend Robin (Ahna O'Reilly) to live with them. Abby has not been sleeping. Kellie grows frustrated with newcomer Robin as she seeks solace from boyfriend Todd.This is another Blumhouse product. They take a scatter gun approach to financing these small scale horrors. This one simply lacks intensity. It's a slow grinding horror. It has no particular atmosphere other than the suburban home vibe. There are all the traditional jump scares and the Poltergeist moves but nothing is new. Tupper and O'Reilly are not particularly special. I only know Dorsey as a child actress in Brothers & Sisters. She's mostly fine and does her transformation well. Most of this movie is a waiting game and it's an impatient wait. The motion detectors are almost interesting. The movie grinds on until the last act. The twist works well enough but it isn't enough. This needs more.
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