When I first heard of Aneesh Chaganty making his return to the horror genre following his first film 'Searching' (a film which I feel hasn't been seen by enough people), I was more than excited. Unfortunately, this just didn't quite land for me. I have seen this same story play out in the Stars TV show 'The Act' and I feel this my have influenced my judgement whilst viewing this. The Act is a true-crime series that was based on the real life events of Dee Dee Blanchard and her daughter Gypsy (played outstandingly by Patricia Arquette and Chloë Sevigny). This film seems to draw inspiration from this and unfortunately for me I much preferred the TV shows interpretation of the concept. To me, it felt much more honest and realistic, less polished and Hollywood. The new modern day horror queen Sarah Paulson and co-star Kiera Allen are both incredible and feel slightly above this film. This is actually Allen's first feature film, which I was surprised to learn after seeing her performance here and to also discover she is actually a wheelchair user after becoming paralysed in 2015 only made me have more admiration for her as an actor. I'm not sure if certain plot points were left on the cutting room floor or not but there were quite a few open-ended plot treads that have left me infuriated, the main one being the scars on the back of Sarah Paulson's character that never get explained. This along with a few moments of questionable plausibility along the way left me feeling frustrated when the credits started rolling - which came about abruptly resulting in what felt like a short conclusion. The build up and the tension in the closing act had us believing it was building to something grand, but then we were given a simple shot to the shoulder and a fall down the stairs. That being said, there was an almost end credit style final couple of minutes that did provide an insight into the future for these characters, which I found to be a nice concluding pay off to the story. Ultimately, for me this is nothing more than a slightly above average thriller with some entertaining and enjoyable moments. It's the kind of popcorn horror you would want on a Sunday night that's not too heavy and doesn't require much thought or concentration to keep up with the majority of the key plot points. Unfortunately, it forced me to draw up a comparison between this and The Act and personally I would recommend that over this any day of the week.
💀💀1/2
Commentaires