Fairly cliched plot. Grieving parent, wanting to bring child back. Obviously things go wrong.

Actors did good. Detailed scenes featuring the ritual creates good intrigue. But that's all there is in the movie. A lot of build up, but it doesn't go anywhere. No real scares, pretty disappointing on the horror front. (The ritual reminded me a little bit of Fullmetal Alchemist.)

The movie also starts in the present and goes back and forth, with the main character telling us the story, but that didn't really serve any real purpose, I'm fairly certain the movie would've played out better if it was linear. The movie is primarily in the past, a flashback, and cutting back for very brief moments to the present didn't add anything to the plot.

Overall, some good moments in the beginning, but ends in disappointment. 4/10.

From Black was perfectly serviceable, but it was really hard to sympathize with Cora. Obviously, a hefty suspension of disbelief is necessary to enjoy movies in this genre, but the filmmakers asked a little too much of the audience by writing the character of Cora as they did.

The jumping off point was reasonable enough with Cora's addiction taking precedence over caring for her son, but with the lengths she went to in order to bring him back, it is unreasonable to expect us to believe that she wouldn't just drink from the cup. Then, she brazenly disrespects the process of the ritual and antagonizes the guy who willingly allowed himself to die in his attempt to help her get her son back.

Cora is just a little too much of a jackass to rally for as a character.

I ended up quite liking this one much more than I thought I was going to. I actually really wanted to give it a 7 but there were two major downfalls that made it so I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

This movie had quite a few factors going for it. It looked quite nice with a generally antmospheric setting and had some awesome sfx and monster makeup. It also did quite a good job at having a slow pace that was tension building and not boring. There were parts that definitely could have been picked up a bit but I was intrigued and engaged throughout the movie.

Another thing I really liked about this movie was the script. I found it quite well written to the point where it stood out to me for the positive, when usually it's the opposite. There were a few clunky/cliche moments but I think that fell much more on delivery than the writing.

One of my two main issues was the acting. Unfortunately it really did not do it for me and I thought it did the movie and script a disservice on multiple fronts. The other thing was its blatant derivative plot. If you have not seen 2016s A Dark Song, it is almost identical. The only problem is... I was not in love with A Dark Song and honestly thought that From Black was more entertaining as a whole. Regardless, the feeling of it being a rip off 7 years later is for sure there.

Despite this, I still had quite a good time with this movie and if they could have done some recasting and sprinkled some originality into the story I think it could have been very successful. Would recommend.