Director: Adam MacDonald
Year: 2018
Country: Canada
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Witchcraft
Plot:
Infuriated with her home-life, a troubled teen seeks to find a way of coping with her and her mother's rocky relationship following the dad's death but when she realizes that the spell she offered absentmindedly has come true and started to weave itself out, forcing her to try to stop it.
Review:
This was a decent enough if somewhat troubling effort. What works really well for this one is the early-going setup that manages to make the events that unfold at the very least believable. Going from the idea of her troubled relationship with her mother, shown to be quite argumentative and confrontational with the misguided belief that everything her mother says is designed to be against the daughters' wishes with the endless round of questioning after every incident, uprooting the family away friends or in general just being unsupportive of anything, creates a wholly misappropriated but not unreasonable motive to want to seek out what happens later on. Given absolutely no respite by the fact that this one goes on to include the group of friends who are completely unsupportive of the whole endeavor who are only out to keep their circle together rather than seeing the bigger picture like most modern teenagers are wont to do and it simply completes the picture of this incredibly well.
There's a lot to like with the way that carries on in here which is where this one starts offering some enjoyable elements. The ceremony to conjure forth the deity, from the night-time stroll through the woods and the preparation of the materials in the bucket where she cuts herself over it and then buries the concoction before returning home, is rather chilling in and of itself which is then aided along nicely with the aftermath of that incident slowly starting to affect their lives. From the small and incidental effects, like the dirt paths shown crossing the house and noises in the attic to more engaged efforts like the blackout sequence where she awakes in the middle of the field bloody all over but unable to recall why or what happened the night before.
Other incidents, like bringing the friend up and spending the night in the darkened woods which leaves her too terrified to spend the night there or the stellar sequence of the girl trying to undo the ceremony found in the woods which starts to screw with her mind in the types of ideas shown here as she slowly starts to lose her mind sets this off in a fine note for the finale. Convinced something is happening as the idea of the creature's wrath coming to take hold, there's plenty to like here as the idea of her not being able to trust anything that's happening means that the freakouts against her mother have quite a nice feel to them which is then aided along nicely by the absolutely harrowing ending that really turns the idea of the curse on its head with the way the action unfolds as this is quite the perfect way to end this effort. Overall, it's enough to hold this up really nicely.
There are a few problems here. The main factor holding this one down is the absolutely asinine reasoning why the entire ritual takes place. The argument that sends them down this pathway is nowhere near close enough to cause this kind of reaction, nor is the cumulative effects of anything we're shown also worthwhile of such an outcome as this leads more into random teenage angst than anything to do with a normal outcome. The relationship is shown to be a way too cliched angsty-teenager-frazzled-mother dynamic that doesn't really generate into the kind of appropriateness for the right outcome. The other minor issue is that, despite being an absolute gut-punch, the ending is telegraphed way too easily and earlier which does lessen it somewhat even though it's still an absolutely chilling outcome in concept. Otherwise, there isn't much to dislike with this one.
Overview: ****/5
While it features a few rather troubling elements, this is all minor compared to the far more engaging and overall enjoyable aspects that are enough to hold this up overall. Give this a shot if you're willing to go along with this one or are a fan of these dark drama-themed efforts, while those that are absolutely appalled at the flaws should heed caution with this one.
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