Raptured

quite nice-looking and some really decent performances.

Suspense from beginning to end, amazing footage and good image quality. The ending was a bit cheesy but a good movie in general

Thrilling from start to finish, I liked the ending didn't find cheesy at all. Nice cinematography and some good acting! nice job everyone

Great cinematography and good acting and technical performances in a precise use of the suspense genre (rather than mistery). The script was simple but effective, though it escaped the challenge of suggesting hints of an explanation (even a cryptic one) for what was happening. The ending was correct, but not more than that.

I loved it! 3 different accents to one family tehee. It was brilliant. I can't think of a bad word against it. What were the actors wearing during the beach scene? I do believe I heard Mr E forgot a change of clothes O_o Overall top notch effort. Great cinematography, included everything required subtlety (so it wasn't the main focus like with every other film) great acting, man she can run! Loved it. My choice for heat5!

This one looked great- and they must have moved like shit off a shovel to get all the shots before losing light. Had all the dank creepiness of many a 1970s children's drama series.

Definitely one of the best, nicely shot, good acting from what seemed to be non professional actors, it built up suspense & had me on the edge of my seat. Wouldn't mind being taught by those teachers!

Agreed was good for most & scary, but not sure at the end what all the fuss was about???

Loved this one. I could follow the story easily, and gave me proper goosebumps. Well-picked soundtrack and lovely cinematography. It was also a pretty serious film. Not all mysteries explained which was most of the suspense.

Really great performances and beautiful cinematography. Congratulations guys!

I liked the expanse of this, and mood, the shooting was lovely. Let down by a lack of real tension given the subject matter; it had promise it subsequently didn't deliver on. Some of the acting was nicely natural (mother). A better plot that eventually answered something about 'why' could have pushed it up the field.

Missed the start of this one but it had great cinematography, great acting – the pace had lots of energy and I was engrossed although I didn’t know what it was about.

I liked how this film captured me..but i was left a bit confused at the end cause i didn't see what was in the car, which obviously wrapped up the mystery! I found out in the end though. Great film guys, some really nice sunset shots too!

This was great. Not bad at all for some teachers from wellington having some fun :D

[Watched this in the screening room] Wow what can I say about "Raptured", it blew my socks off in a way I never expected. Firstly it felt like I was watching a movie, I felt like it could have continued on another hour and a half (I wish it had!) I was sceptical at first (odd choice of car!), but all the elements of great film making came together to have me in honest suspense. I felt like I have never felt in a movie before, that ANYTHING could happen. Usually you know what is going to happen, whether it is zombies or killer sharks, but here it was different. When the lead character (the young girl) runs up and we get a huge wide shot of the horizon I felt like a swarm of spitfires would appear on the skyline, then the next second I thought the house would explode... then the next that a giant squid would appear from the wave, it was truly a magnificent feeling that I hope I feel again in the future! (one way that would have reinforced the mystery and suspense is the clothing and car, if they had been more generic so I could not guess the time period). The cinematography had some brilliant moments, props to Andrew Strugnell, and the music fitted so well in the story that I felt it was pulling at the draw strings of my emotions rather than my ears! Sound, editing, story, acting and all other aspects of the film were solid and helped the film feel like one, a superb accomplishment in directing by Michael Gates. Special mention must go to the father, who had a great screen presence and I felt was underutilised, and to.. the man. After waiting the whole movie for something to happen, I get a 2 second glimpse at perhaps the scariest expression on a man I have ever seen, best actor/actress in the whole thing! The two female leads were also convincing, I really liked the moment the mum looks through the window and hears "voices" (I almost got caught up in a whole new tangent there) and the daughter as the protagonist is well cast, not for one second did I believe she was not experiencing what she was experiencing on screen. Constructive criticism, well obviously the car and clothes... changing them would have done alot for me in this movie. Also like many films it lacked memorability, in sits on the verge of my mind ready to tumble into my memory banks for ever, or slip off and never be seen again. I think the inclusion of something truly unique and original could have raised the bar of this film alot in my mind. (How hard would it be to add a giant killer whale leaping out of the water at the end? haha) Awesome effort guys, defiantly looking forward to your film next year, but this time maybe not suspense! I am in too much suspense waiting to see you put your filming skills to less nail biting and more eye popping!

I loved it! 3 different accents to one family tehee. It was brilliant. I can't think of a bad word against it. What were the actors wearing during the beach scene? I do believe I heard Mr E forgot a change of clothes O_o Overall top notch effort. Great cinematography, included everything required subtlety (so it wasn't the main focus like with every other film) great acting, man she can run! Loved it. My choice for heat5!

This one looked great- and they must have moved like shit off a shovel to get all the shots before losing light. Had all the dank creepiness of many a 1970s children's drama series.

[Watched this in the screening room] Wow what can I say about "Raptured", it blew my socks off in a way I never expected. Firstly it felt like I was watching a movie, I felt like it could have continued on another hour and a half (I wish it had!) I was sceptical at first (odd choice of car!), but all the elements of great film making came together to have me in honest suspense. I felt like I have never felt in a movie before, that ANYTHING could happen. Usually you know what is going to happen, whether it is zombies or killer sharks, but here it was different. When the lead character (the young girl) runs up and we get a huge wide shot of the horizon I felt like a swarm of spitfires would appear on the skyline, then the next second I thought the house would explode... then the next that a giant squid would appear from the wave, it was truly a magnificent feeling that I hope I feel again in the future! (one way that would have reinforced the mystery and suspense is the clothing and car, if they had been more generic so I could not guess the time period). The cinematography had some brilliant moments, props to Andrew Strugnell, and the music fitted so well in the story that I felt it was pulling at the draw strings of my emotions rather than my ears! Sound, editing, story, acting and all other aspects of the film were solid and helped the film feel like one, a superb accomplishment in directing by Michael Gates. Special mention must go to the father, who had a great screen presence and I felt was underutilised, and to.. the man. After waiting the whole movie for something to happen, I get a 2 second glimpse at perhaps the scariest expression on a man I have ever seen, best actor/actress in the whole thing! The two female leads were also convincing, I really liked the moment the mum looks through the window and hears "voices" (I almost got caught up in a whole new tangent there) and the daughter as the protagonist is well cast, not for one second did I believe she was not experiencing what she was experiencing on screen. Constructive criticism, well obviously the car and clothes... changing them would have done alot for me in this movie. Also like many films it lacked memorability, in sits on the verge of my mind ready to tumble into my memory banks for ever, or slip off and never be seen again. I think the inclusion of something truly unique and original could have raised the bar of this film alot in my mind. (How hard would it be to add a giant killer whale leaping out of the water at the end? haha) Awesome effort guys, defiantly looking forward to your film next year, but this time maybe not suspense! I am in too much suspense waiting to see you put your filming skills to less nail biting and more eye popping!