Director: Justin McConnell
Year: 2018
Country: Canada
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
At the end of it's cycle, a strange body-hopping being that has to keep shifting into a new host attempts to put it's focus on its beloved romantic interest by killing those around her in to get close enough in order to be together only for it's nature to take hold at the wrong moments.
Review:
This was a somewhat enjoyable effort. One of the finest aspects of the film is the incredibly strong and rather interesting setup featured at the start of the film. The film dives into this rather interesting creature from the start, showing off an impressive shapeshifting being that is continually on the hunt for new victims. The idea of being a shapeshifting spirit, one that can only be involved in a body for a certain period of time before it has to hop into another person which is signalled by the skin starting to rash and decompose and leak out various fluids before the change takes effect which is one of the more intriguing and enjoyable concepts for the creature here. Despite a brief tangent at the end that gives a brief look at what it is by tying into a form of Native American legend that offers a minor plot point about what he might be, on the whole this is quite an interesting variation of the body-hopping creation.
Seeing these scenes set up the series of strong and somewhat brutal kills there's some fun to be had from the numerous body-jumping sequences. Starting with the opening dismemberment of the one victim and leading into the series of confrontations at the boyfriends' house as she changes forms into several individuals, the series of random kills that she has to play out in order to stay on the move. That also includes the enjoyably thrilling and suspenseful scene of one form attempting to dodge the police force coming after her for one of the latest victims where it turns into several footchases and hiding places around the neighborhood. The other big action encounter at the end offers up an enjoyable battle between the two that's more interesting than expected, and coupled with the engaging body-horror found in the finale offers up enough to like overall here to lift it up over it's flaws.
One of the biggest issues with the film is the difficult time it has trying to come to terms with how to tell it's story. The disjointed feel of this one, especially since we follow this ever-rotating cast of hosts that make-up the majority of the running time featured here, is never really explained in here. The anthology format of the film, jumping from one person to another without even catching their name or who they are, makes this difficult to keep track of who's who in the film or what they're trying to accomplish as the voice-over narration gives this more of a chaotic, narrative-less approach which doesn't make sense or generate any kind of answers once it spills it's main storyline. That can make for a somewhat challenging watch as this goes along.
The other issue here is the wholly underwhelming finale which is not completely based in horror at all. By going for the romance angle with the whole motivation here being to try to win her over, the main focus of not trying to hurt her turns the final half into a half-hearted romantic drama that maintains no real threat or suspense at all which really undermines a lot of the film. Taking away what had been it's main purpose until then and then swapping it all out for a brief series of scenes showing them together in a romantic relationship that has nothing of any real interest during this point and it falls flat at the moment when it really shouldn't. These here are what really hurt the film.
Overview: **/5
As it has enough to make it watchable but still carries with it some rather large flaws which are still impactful enough and prominent that it looms large over the film. Give it a chance if you're interested in what's going on or find these low-budget efforts enjoyable, while those that don't appreciate those efforts should definitely heed caution here.
This ran as part of our coverage of the 2018 Fantasia Festival series of review.
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