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Chained To My Bully Stepbrother (AI Vertical BL Drama)

This is the second vertical AI BL drama I've sat through, and honestly I went in knowing better. I had it on while I was doing cardio at the gym, and what struck me was just how much the plot echoed the last one I watched. Same step brother romance angle, same mystery girlfriend showing up near the end, same extra guy pining after one of the leads. Genuinely the only thing going for it was the runtime, the whole thing wrapped up in forty five minutes flat.  The setup kicks off with Finn moving schools because his mom just married into money. He finds out his new step brother Aiden goes to the same place, and he's warned to keep his distance from him. Their first run in at school is rocky, just like you'd expect, but there's this odd pull between them neither can shake off. Finn keeps telling himself not to read into it because Aiden's straight and openly homophobic. Things shift when some kids start bullying Finn and the student council president, Ryan, steps in to ...

Devil's Path

We should always give credit where its due. There are so many similar themed gay films out there that there story lines keep blending with each other. So in that respect the makers have definitely come up with an interesting novel storyline. Unfortunately, something that looked good on paper loses its steam and feels too stretched at many places.

The title refers to a hidden hiking trail in a wilderness park where gay men often go for cruising. A young man Noah is walking around with tarrot cards and starts following Patrick as soon as he sees him. They strike up a conversation but clearly Patrick is looking for just casual sex. On Noah's insistence, Patrick decides to stay little longer for him but when Noah is attacked from behind after wandering off for a minute and he and Patrick begin fearing for their lives. It seems the only chance for survival is to get back to the main trails and back to their cars. Instead, they spend the day running from the assailants in what turns out to be an ever-expanding piece of forest. The two get to know each other while they are running and we feel a layer of mystery and back story. We find out that Noah is looking for details of mis missing brother Michael who was last seen with Patrick on Devil's Path. Michael and Noah also have some childhood history of abuse and that Noah feels Michael has always been his soulmate.

The story is interesting because as an audience we are looking to understand what really is going on. But at some point things start getting repetitive. Almost half of the film is spent running with minimal dialogues. But on a brighter side, the two lead actors do a very commendable job. They have great chemistry as 2 guys who are on the run and keep audiences hooked but how I wish that was enough. The plot slowly loses direction and i just wanted them to come to the point. Patrick really didn't have to say 100 times that he is scared of dark. And a few such things like inhaler, or Noah's search for his soulmate and all. It got a big yawn from me. The film is more of a psychological thriller but both the reasoning for Noah's behavior and the abrupt ending takes away the fun.

Agreed that this film tries to do something different in this genre but I wish how they had done a better job. (4/10)

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