Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Starring: Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgard, Justin Long, Matthew Patrick Davis
Where to watch: Prime
To watch or not to watch: A must watch for all the thriller lovers, and non-thriller lovers. Will need a tolerance for violence
Tess (Georgina Campbell) has booked an AirBnB in Brightmoor, Detroit, only to find it double booked with Keith (Bill Skarsgard) already staying there. Since it was late, raining heavily and most hotels booked because of a convention, Tess decides to stay in the same house, albeit reluctantly. Keith is all thumbs trying to make Tess comfortable, going as far as to open a wine bottle only in front of her, in case she is suspicious of adulteration. They have a nice chat and the evening ends on a good note. The next day while inspecting the basement, Tess discovers a labyrinth of tunnels, a (creepy) room with a bed, video recording equipment and a bloody handprint, and encounters a vicious, ferocious creature, which looks like it slipped in the evolution after Homo erectus. In another world, AJ (Justin Long) is a struggling actor who has recently been accused of raping a fellow actor, which he vehemently denies. To pay for his legal fees, he decides to sell off his property, which is the same AirBnB.
This is a difficult review to write, difficult to know where to begin. It falls under the “Monster” category of horror movies. But, it is not the monster in the traditional sense, not even in the sense pictured in the movie. There is an adage “show, not tell” which makes a movie good. This one surpasses even that, in that that the true monster is actually to be perceived by the audience, from all the instances shown in the movie. Let me explain…
The movie has the regular tropes – a single, vulnerable girl in a house on a deserted street with a strange man who has previously portrayed predatory characters successfully. The house also has a basement, which leads to untold (perceived) horrors, with doors which have suspicious and irregular opening and locking mechanisms. The girl gets locked in the basement where the monster lives. And that’s the end of the tropes. What is truly beyond brilliance is the way the tropes have been used to blind the audience, to create a pre-conceived notion, only to be shown something so extraordinary that anyone would be horrifically surprised. This is how the movie and the director break the fourth wall. Spoilers ahead…
We have Bill Skarsgård, who is the stranger in the double-booked rental with Tess. He is terribly awkward and tried too hard to make Tess comfortable, almost as if he has no good intentions on his mind. He also has a lanky, towering visage, sunken eyes, added to he popular role of Pennywise which he portrayed with aplomb, we are predisposed to associate him with ill-will. We are inclined to believe the source of horror to be Bill Skarsgård.
Cut to: a carefree Justin Long cruising along a shore in a red convertible with top down, singing along to a beat-filled song. He gets a call to inform him that his female coworker has filed rape charges against him. He denies vehemently, and tries gather his already dwindling resources to pay for a lawyer. And, we as audience are rooting for him. After all, he is the one who played a lovesick boyfriend in Going The Distance, a sympathetic listener in He’s Just Not That Into You, he has to be the good guy.
Zach Cregger uses these already implanted notions and break the fourth wall. He is telling the user “You think Keith is evil. You think wrong”.
This goes beyond the actors, in truth. It is also questioning what we experience as regular people in our daily lives. A man with clear skin, charming smile and the gift of glib can be as big a threat, if not more, as someone who is apparently out to get us. And the female-attributed traits of acquiescence, quiet and caution are needed for survival in the world with monsters made by men. The real monsters are the men who use their powers to inflict pain on women and they end up creating bigger monsters than who they are themselves.
cinemadilemma.com 