Director: Vanessa Alexander
Year: 2022
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Trying to reconnect with her sister, a woman's trip to visit her is interrupted by talk of a returning killer from their childhood coming back to haunt her, and after setting out to find out if he exists runs into the actual killer and must find a way to stop his brutal rampage to save her sister.
Review:
This was a generally fun and entertaining effort. Among the more entertaining aspects of this one comes from the engaging setup that provides a great starting point for what's to come. Getting in-depth with the issues of childhood trauma that were levied at the hands of the initial encounter and how it applies to their current lives creates a fantastic setting here. Involving quite a lot of interesting supernatural elements here with the dreams and flashbacks to previous encounters allows these to come together rather nicely for an overall solid setup.
As well, this one also serves quite well with the general brutality applied to the interactions with the killer. Adding an intriguing occult bent to everything involving the symbols and various Satanic goings-on around his activities, this adds quite a lot to like with the series of encounters featured here. The back-and-forth stalking on display where they capture his attention, leading to some impressive and eerie confrontations that generate some gruesome kills and brutal moments. Combined with some nice pacing to keep this from being boring, there's a lot to like here.
This one does have some big issues to be had here. The main drawback to this one comes from one of the most inherently confusing and outright problematic senses of coherence regarding what's going on at what point in point. Since this one flips back and forth in time between the past, the sisters' encounter with the killer, the events leading to the killer's capture, the present day, and at least several other points in time, it's nearly impossible to figure out what's going on. Telling this in a linear fashion is a far more noteworthy and effective way to figure out the story here.
The other issue here, a byproduct of the films' incredibly confusing setup, is that there's hardly anything known about the killer or their motivation for doing anything. Since the main purpose of the killer's mission is a bizarre occult angle featuring a mysterious symbol and a form of body-swapping regarding the killer possessing bodies to carry out a rampage of some kind, that's all guesswork and badly hinted at anyway which all told really comes together with the other factor to lower this one.
Overview: **.5/5
An underwhelming slasher that should’ve been far better than what it is, there are some drawbacks that are quite problematic here which overcome the series of positives to stand out quite heavily. Those who are intrigued by this type of effort or enjoy this style of slasher will like it the most while those who don’t appreciate those factors should heed caution.
This review ran as part of our 2023 Women in Horror Month celebrations. Click the banner below to check out the rest of our month-long celebrations including various reviews and interviews:
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