Director: Matthew Festle and Matt Leal
Year: 2020
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Plot:
Doing a true-crime podcast with a friend, one of the hosts’ increasingly bizarre and off-beat antics to improve the show tends to turn off his partner and employers to the point that his sanity starts to break, and as he slips further he becomes a threat not just to himself but others around him.
Review:
This was a solid and enjoyable effort. One of the more interesting aspects here is the burgeoning psychological build-up on display which comes across a lot to like. The stress of his everyday life trying to come up with content for the show and the struggle to remain cool as his life begins to unravel as the exploits with their boss and the revelation about the missed interview show the earliest signs of his unhinged state. Given that there’s a gradual behavior change as a result as well, this happens to fuel the second half where it becomes a detriment to the show and eventually leads to the struggles within.
As this change to the show is ongoing, the eventual downward spiral goes alongside the physical manifestations that slowly emerge. Suffering from delusions and hallucinations about injuring and disfiguring himself, the result of this comes as an enjoyable method to denote how the guy’s mental sanity is snapping. Once the show officially changes and he’s far more susceptible, that brings about a couple of impressive gore gags to showcase how he’s become so psychologically unstable that he would harm others and gives some solid blood-drenched kills as a result. These efforts, combined with a zippy pace, offer up so much to like here.
There isn’t much to dislike with this one. The main issue is the whole finale which, keeping the entire theme of the film intact, seems to end with no real resolution. The idea is sound in what happens yet there’s a suddenness and jerking quality to the film which is quite disconcerting with how abrupt that occurs. On top of that, the after-credits sequence covers a far-better and more impactful outcome to everything that’s happened anyway, making the resolution even odder. As well, the mental insanity he develops is so obvious it seems weird to have had no one comment once he finally starts behaving even more erratically, which is all that holds it down.
Overview: ***.5/5
A pretty enjoyable and engaging psychological thriller involving the slow descent into the madness shown here, there’s a lot to like here even with a few minor slip-ups that bring it down slightly. Give it a look if you’re a fan of these psychological genre efforts or curious about it, while only those who don’t appreciate that kind of format will be turned off here.
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