ReSet (2022) Movie Review - Horror on Tubi
Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are starting a brand new feature, we are going to be reviewing low budget horror on Tubi. The rules are simple, I can’t read reviews, I can’t read anything about the movie, I simply have to pick based on the cover. We are kicking things off with David Sumner’s low budget Time Loop horror ReSet. Despite having a rather unfortunate title. Especially given the success of 2022 Chinese time loop whodunit Reset. We were actually quite surprised by this film. How about joining us and finding out why?
A Nervous Start – ReSet
I set myself a simple challenge this month. Let’s hit up streaming service Tubi and pick a movie with no knowledge of the plot, budget, actors or anything. With this in mind, I ventured on with no small amount of trepidation. My fiancee and I chatted back and forth about some of the choices on offer. “Shall we go for a found footage?“. “Hey, this actually sounds pretty good“. “Have we seen this before?“. “Jesus, if the cover is that bad imagine what the movie is like!“. The debate raged on for about 15 minutes as we doom scrolled our way through movie after movie.
We finally accepted the fact that it really didn’t matter. We were probably going to end up watching more bad movies than good. Why not just dive right in? With that new mantra in mind. We picked a movie with a terrible cover, a crap name and a short runtime, grabbed some snacks and prepared to be disappointed. But then something really strange happened, we weren’t actually disappointed… In fact, we were the opposite.. We were appointed! Wait, actually, I don’t think that is the right word. Whatever! We actually found ourselves enjoying the movie. What the hell happened?
Resetting our Expectations
We started watching ReSet and, naturally, immediately cringed a little bit. An opening flashback scene features some dreadful dialogue. All regurgitated by an elderly man who provokes a heated debate “Does he lack more in years left on this planet or acting talent?”. I am not sure. It’s not very promising, to tell you the truth. Things aren’t quick to improve, either. The party scene that follows is both awkward and a bit silly, clearly suffering for a lack of extras. Our lead character Danielle (Alyssa Corella) dances away among a sea of apathy. Characters are out of sync, there is no music actually playing and people avoid the glare of the camera in much the same way that I do when a stranger is on a video call in a supermarket.
Corella’s competent dancing, low cut dress and swaying hair, afford her something of a main character in a Playstation 1 JRPG feel. It’s like most of the resources were dedicated to processing her slightly more elaborate animations. All while background NPCs repeat the same three movements. It’s jarring but exactly what you would expect from a movie like this. But we persisted.
Our girl is there to party and she isn’t put off by the lack of energy in the room or questionably aged students. Hell, even her best friend’s inconsiderate and unappreciative bitching can’t quash her mood. Can you believe this cow complained about Danielle getting her a job? Young people today, right? Or, in this case. People in there thirties playing young people today. Anyways, Danielle heads downstairs to chill on the chaise lounge. Kicking back on her phone and drinking some nondescript alcohol. That’s when things begin to go seriously wrong.
Mr Nice Guy
It becomes clear, pretty quickly, that someone has spiked Danielle’s drink. They watched her shaking that ass on the err dance patio? Decided they wanted a piece but knew they had no shot. Danielle wakes up in the bed of absolutely massive nice guy Edgar Lorne. This dude is huge. Played by Ben Barlow, he has to be about 6′ 3″ and 300lbs of pure meat. Danielle wants to know what is up. The nice guy claims to have rescued her from the party after her friends ditched her, he brought her back to his place and put her in bed. Not creepy at all!
Naturally, nobody would feel comfortable in that situation. He claims he hasn’t done anything to Danielle but you know this dude would have copped a feel getting her into the car. He’s clearly the type to enjoy hugging female friends to feel their boobs against his chest. Give him the ol’ shoulder hug ladies, don’t let him have the pleasure. Keep them boobies for people you actually want feeling them.
This prompts Danielle to call bullshit. The windows are padlocked, the doors have keycode entry systems and Edgar is a seriously strange dude. Danielle demands her release only to be brutally murdered by Edgar. End of the movie, right? Well, nope. A vision of the afterlife and a chat with the now deceased, and still terrible at acting, relative clears things up. Danielle wakes up in the bedroom only to start the events all over again.
Happy Death Day Lite
Am I spoiling too much here? Well, perhaps and I apologise if that is the case but this movie does not give any hint of what type of film it is. I suppose the name gives it away. But the first thing my partner and I said when Danielle woke up again. Was “Why didn’t the movie just say that it was Happy Death Day lite?”. We love movies like this. We adored Happy Death Day and its sequel. I am always up for time loop horror.
Again, being completely honest, there are issues here. Before we get into the pros we should talk about the cons. Sound production is lousy, the movie feels terribly low budget, acting can be wooden, some of the dialogue is a bit shit, direction can be hit or miss here and there. There are a lack of scares, there are a lot of mistakes like random lapel mics in shot and everything feels a bit cheap. But I expected all of those things before we actually started watching the movie.
An Honestly Fun Watch
Despite this, the positives manage to outweigh the negatives here. The death loop cycle is fun and interesting. The movie is legitimately funny in parts. Sumner keeps you guessing with how Danielle will try to outsmart Edgar next and some of the references to incel culture feel particularly apt. This is a movie with its finger on the pulse of a few specific social issues. Namely that of men feeling like they are owed love. Sure, this is a bit of a played out theme in recent years but Edgar’s constant self pitying and sense of entitlement rings very true. Especially when considering young men with vulnerable narcissism.
While not being particularly scary, ReSet has some brutal kills. Even despite the majority of violence happening away from the camera. Edgar is a big dude and Danielle feels incredibly diminutive compared to him. This affords her a real sense of vulnerability, at least until she starts outsmarting him. Wisecracking, poking fun at him and challenging his very tainted world view. It’s fun stuff. The movie managed to make me laugh on a number of occasions. Danielle’s witty retorts make for some comedic moments. Her seemingly otherworldly knowledge of Edgar and his house also offer up the opportunity for some hilarious reactions from Edgar. This brings me on to the next point.
Decent Acting
Alyssa Corella and Ben Barlow are both excellent. Corella’s confident delivery and excellent comedic timing stand out. Making Danielle a character who is, genuinely, easy to root for. She is never afraid to get physical, she has a range of expressions that belie her lack of actual movie acting experience and Corella’s understanding of her character allows her to bring something a little more personal to Danielle. There were a few parts here and there where her enunciation was a little unclear. This is likely due to limited opportunities to reshoot, though.
Barlow was excellent, switching seamlessly between wannabe nice guy and mean, self absorbed, incel. He does a great job of capturing that very particularly type of nastiness, oh so common in some circles of people. I, also, really enjoyed some of his reactions to Danielle. His shock when he thinks he has the upper hand, only to realise that Danielle knows something he doesn’t is always comical. Great job.
Should You Watch ReSet?
Context is important here, this is an ultra low budget horror movie. A three for this is not the same as a three for most other horror movies. As it stands, though. I was surprised by ReSet and quite enjoyed it. Sure, it isn’t going to appeal to everyone and some likely won’t even make it past the awkward opening scenes. It does have a decent number of problems as well. But if you give it a chance, you may have a laugh. There’s enough here to make it quite enjoyable. It’s good to support small movie makers and Tubi is a great way to do it. You are only spending your time and nothing else. Why not check ReSet out?
