Disturbing and slow-burning thrillers that is female lead have become quite an enjoyable sub-genre for me. Some of you know that I am obsessed with The Neon Demon, and this film certainly gave me a similar vibe. So I was clearly excited that the potential this film showed in its trailers. Also, with huge talents such as Anya Taylor-Joy and Olivia Cooke leading the way, I felt I was going to be in for a real treat.
I came out of my screening feeling pretty satisfied. The first scene sets you in for an eerie experience, and the sauntered style of pace just enhanced everything. It almost had an hypnotic vibe around it, where you can get completely lost and absorbed into this setting. That was also helped by the almost haunting score by Erik Friedlander.
As I hoped for and expected, both the leading performances by Joy and Cooke were great. Both girls fitted the tone perfectly and had strong chemistry together. The completely flat dialogue delivery from Cooke was fantastically unsettling. It even sparked out some black comedy moments which was unexpected and yet worked really well. This was quite a breakthrough performance by her I felt. It gave me more confidence that she can do a lot of projects of various tones.
It is also being billed as Anton Yelchin's last time as you might remember he passed away two years ago in the most unfortunate of circumstances. Yelchin was great in this, and it was such a fitting final performance to show how big of a talent he was. If you're a fan of Yelchin, his performance alone is a good reason to watch this film whether you end up liking the film or not.
I don't have many gripes to mention. However, I think the ending felt too wrapped-up, and it kind of over-stayed its welcome. For me to say that for a film that's just over 90 minutes, that's not good at all.
Despite that small problem I had, the overall experience was good creepy fun that I would happily recommend. As mentioned before, I liked the tone, the pacing is solid for the most part and the strong performances just added to the experience so well.
It's beautifully shot by Lyle Vincent and has many captivating tracking shots that reminded me a lot of The Shining or a Yorgos Lanthimos film. The cinematography really made the most of its environment.
I think Cory Findlay did great job directing and writing this, and I will excited to see what he does next. These types of films that are basically a metaphor of teenage angst can be fantastic, and this one was pretty good.
I don't think it has as much depth or content compared to films similar to this. That's what prevented me from giving it an exceptional rating. But it came close, as I think there is still plenty to enjoy.
However on a final note, the slow-pacing may turn a lot of people off. So you have been warned.
Rating: 7/10
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