A volatile villainous visitor vigilantly vanquishing vulnerable victims vividly vowing severe devotion of vicious vengeance living vicariously via whoever loved her deserving of the unavoidable vendetta.

The Bad Visitor is the new independent film from Breaking Glass Pictures. The official synopsis is “Vanessa and David are enjoying their beautiful lives in the suburbs of Georgia. Unannounced, a childhood friend of Vanessa’s shows up to her doorstep seeking to rekindle their relationship. So happy to see her old friend, she takes her in with open arms not knowing that she is running from a violent past that is slowly catching up to her.” Will the new visitor be the new resident cut-up?

Written and directed by Omar Rogers, The Bad Visitor was filmed on location in Atlanta, Georgia. One good thing about this film is it starts with an intriguing inciting incident. The problem is the script. The pacing is off. It feels longer than an hour and twelve minutes. At one point I checked my watch and was surprised there was still half an hour left. Characters have irrelevant conversations that go nowhere with no payoff. The kills are few and far between these segments.

It does have impressive wide shots of the city skyline and landmarks, having briefly lived there that’s a nice touch. I wondered if it was filmed by a drone. However, the editing is inconsistent. It has establishing shots set during the day but it’s nighttime inside the building where the characters are. Some establishing shots don’t establish what building the characters are in at all.

There’s a level of high tension when the killer is talking to people because she’s unpredictable. Sometimes when she strikes it’s truly surprising. However, the gore effects for the kill scenes aren’t very good. Some wounds look like people dabbed ketchup on the actors. Characters get shot in the head with guns and there’s no blood. Some kills are so poorly staged that they’re unintentionally funny.

The Bad Visitor is shot with unique camera angles, framing, and camera movements. However, the production value altogether is low. Some scenes are poorly lit. It seems like they had little to no additional lights to brighten them up. Some scenes shot in the same room have inconsistent lighting causing awkward shadows on walls that wouldn’t be there in a regularly lit room. Unnatural shadows are distracting. Some scenes are either overexposed or too dark too. Movies with low budgets have been produced with a more polished look.

The ensemble cast includes Rodney Perry, Ginger Renee, Linda Susan Husser, Joel Thaddeus Braggs, Cline Barker, Tamia Naomi, Tene Odzer, Kerry Sidberry, Angielethia Carter, Eric Hardyway, and Timothy Blocker Jr. The characters are so bland I lost track of who’s who. The acting is consistently bad. There’s no emotion in the line delivery. It’s like the actors read the lines and then just said with they read. Perhaps more rehearsals or direction could have improved the performances.

Overall, The Bad Visitor has more cons than pros. It feels like a low-budget college film made last minute to hit their due date. More drafts of the script, the foundation of all films, could’ve fixed plotline and pacing issues. The film has several more shortcomings including gore effects, lighting, editing consistency, acting, and directing. I wouldn’t recommend this because all these things made for an unpleasant viewing experience. And remember, hell hath no fury like a woman’s scorn.

4 out of 10