Director: Colin Krawchuk
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural Slasher
Plot:
Following the death of their father, sisters are brought back together and attempt to reconnect after being estranged for several years, but when their attempts at getting back together are interrupted by The Jester, a seemingly invincible killer, they have to come together to stop him.
Review:
This was a disappointing and generally underwhelming genre effort. About the only positive feature to be had here is the seemingly enjoyable and stylish main villain, who is quite an impressive and imposing figure. The idea of the silent, masked clown with an imposing grin, stark-white face, and grisly make-up painted on his face is a unique and somewhat chilling creation on its own before taking into account the orange tuxedo, tophat, and walking cane he has that not only complete the look but add immensely to the presentation. This makes everything all the more enjoyable when these elements are utilized during his scenes, where he manipulates others to kill themselves or bring some kind of hallucinatory vision to light with the different psychological tortures being inflicted as he targets the sisters and their friends, including confrontations on the street or a special trip to a Halloween-themed festival in town. These are handled well enough that the other encounters and confrontations that result in gruesome death for the others are intriguing enough to be somewhat enjoyable, giving this enough to hold it up somewhat.
There are some big problems with this one that keep it down. The main one with the film is that the story for this one makes the film come together in such a bland, underwhelming fashion that there’s just little interest in what’s going on. The whole center storyline about the oldest daughter trying to come to terms with the fathers’ suicide, the step-sister he loved more than her, and the impact it has on her personal life by being a loner with no friends tries to generate som sympathy and pathos for the two of them as they continue to be targeted by the strange killer, but it makes this come off as a slog to get through. Far too much of the film is an existential drama about how she comes to terms with the fact that her father left her to go start a new life and new family, which tries to impart some type of special relationship in such a dull, dragging manner that there’s little interest in the way it proceeds, with how little anything happens. Everything, from the interactions with the friends to the different blow-ups they have with each other and even the killer’s interactions with his victims, sets up the wild finale where everything is twisted around in various reveals that are quite fun and give this a lot to like.
That leads to the other big drawback here, in that the killer figure is a complete non-entity in terms of how little we actually know about it. The name is only known from promotional material, as it seems to fit it based on the appearance but is never mentioned at all in the film, the sense being that it’s pretty much arbitrary to generate more of an episodic approach to him encountering random strangers and performing magic simply to get to the next victim in his quest before coming upon the main girl. It’s not as though they allow him to gain more power to be able to challenge the main girl, or that they allow us to learn more about it, as, instead, it just feels as though it’s designed to get him on screen to break up the family drama instead, so he relies on these features at first before it all disappears. Combined with some obvious low-budget leanings that are quite obvious in what type of film this really is, these all bring this one down overall.
Overview: **/5
An intriguing if somewhat flawed original, there’s enough to like here that it becomes a watchable effort at best, while being let down by the series of issues featured here. Those with an appreciation for what’s being presented here or who are curious about it will have the most to enjoy with this one, while most others out there should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment