Director: Steven R. Munroe
Year: 2022
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
After taking invitro fertilization, a newly pregnant woman is suddenly unnerved by the series of strange coincidences and occurrences surrounding the occasion which soon leads her to finding a connection with a bizarre reanimation cult that explains the situation and trying to save her child.
Review:
This was a rather fun take on the familiar genre formula. One of the better features here is the rather strong means through which this one utilizes the build-up to the incident as a means of psychological torment on the mother. Rather than going through some of the expected routines here with something troubling an expectant mother, this one takes a dramatically different approach to that style by making a series of gruesome accidents happen around her. As it starts off strongly from her established issues following the death of her mother and the relationship strains in quick order, these factors feature a highly effective starting point to unleash the start of the craziness that starts happening shortly after that which ranges from the freak-out on the street to the gruesome and bloody encounters she has with those around that signal something is wrong with the pregnancy.
That is enhanced nicely by the wild series of confrontations that take place which are nicely infused with a fun dynamic that borders nicely on the rather bizarre series of encounters. Featuring the kind of situations where their unexpected turn towards self-mutilation or maiming serves as an intriguing twist here, especially with the early scenes at the doctor’s office when he snaps during the meeting or the mother’s ghost visiting her. These set the stage for the encounters later on where the series of encounters become quite similar with the eye-changes and the gruesome outcome that follows where it has some graphic confrontations as a result. The only other factor that works here is the series of escalating incidents at the compound that enhance the hopelessness of the situation and lead to a couple of fun encounters that take place there, giving this some fun moments overall.
There are some big issues here that bring this one down overall. The biggest drawback to the film is a completely nonsensical storyline addition in the second half that turns the whole thing into a fully-underwhelming cult angle that makes a lot of what seemed earlier feel unnecessary. Introducing the angle involving the cult looking to honor the mythical being that was worshipped by a cult that her mother was involved in and escaped from before being shut down comes off without much connection to the events that start happening to her. Most of the possessions and body-hopping that carries on here takes so much suspension of disbelief to make realistic sense of that this feels like a completely different film altogether, especially once the cult at the center of it all comes into play as this all is so tenuously connected it barely feels connected to what’s going on. As well, there’s the overly familiar storyline at play here which might be problematic for some, which are all that end up dragging this one down.
Overview: ***/5
An enjoyable enough if problematic genre effort, this one does have some big detriments that hold it back over some of the positives here which keeps this somewhat more disappointing than it should be. Those who are fans of this type of style or are fine with the negative features could give this one a shot while those that don’t appreciate those factors or are turned off by the issues on display should heed caution with this one.
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