This movie seemed to tick all the boxes when it came out – it was horror, a supposedly popular genre; had an exciting new director; featured a hot male star (Xavier Samuel), backed with strong theatre actors (Robin McLeavy, John Brumpton); had a terrific central idea (Misery meets Pretty in Pink – a crazy girl and her crazier father kidnap said girl’s dream guy).
But it doesn’t quite work.
For starters, I admit I’m not a horror fan, but surely there could have been more story. As it is the 75 minute running time is padded out with an uninteresting and unnecessary subplot about the romance between Richard Wilson and Jess MacNamee. MacNamee gets her kit off, but it’s not really enough to justify it. Come to think of it, there’s a bit of late 20s/early 30s female flesh on display here (Victoria Thaine as a girl in year 12?) which is normally a good thing but jarring in a film about high school students.
And why cast a handsome lout like Xavier Samuel in the lead and give him an atrocious haircut? It looks like a stringy mop. Why not have Thaine’s character put in some effort looking for her missing boyfriend – like ask Samuel’s friends where he’s gone, for instance? The moment at the end where a cop turns up and is killed by a kidnapping girl indicates maybe Sean Byrne had seen Misery – but he didn’t learn enough from that film. In Misery, Kathy Bates had a set goal, i.e. to get James Caan to write a book. But McLeavy doesn’t seem to have any real aim here apart from to torture Samuel – she gets sick of him too quickly. I get that she thought he was a “frog” rather than a prince but it happens too soon. A story that should be about love, isn’t.
Let’s take a walk on the sunny side – it looks terrific (production design, photography, etc), the acting is very good (McLeavy and Brumpton are standouts), there are some great moments, especially that bit where Samuel breaks free and winds up in the trap door. But the film has no more bullets in the gun after that.
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