Category: Teen supernatural horor
Directed by: Danny and Michael Phillippou
Similar to: Hereditary, It Follows
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I avoided this movie for a while because the name of this movie is very similar to a software application I support at my work whose implementation and support have caused me headaches - to the point that merely typing the title of this movie reminds me of said work, the last thing I want while I am on annual leave and watching movies.
But once again, I am also guilty of cutting off my nose to spite my face by delaying watching this - this movie turned out to be quite decent! I'll get into my full thoughts after a plot run-down, but if you're a fan of movies like Hereditary and It Follows, you'll also like this one.
The other thing to note is that this is another high-profile horror movie to be filmed in South Australia as The Babadook and Snowtown were filmed there as well. Maybe South Australia is competing with Tasmania to be the horror capital of Australia - God knows South Australia has some skin in the game on that front, to the point that Top Gear once famously quipped:
"Being home to serial killers, and sharks, and probably also serial-killing sharks, and heavy rain, Adelaide is thus a grand place to drive away from."
The plot:
The movie begins at a large teenage house party and we follow Cole (Ari McCarthy) who is in a rage trying to find his brother Duckett (Sunny Johnson). Duckett, as it turns out, has locked himself in a bedroom whose door Cole smashes down. Leading his brother out and castigating everyone present for filming his meltdown on their phones, Cole turns around and is suddenly stabbed by his brother who then proceeds to fatally stab himself.
We then cut to Mia (Sophie Wilde), a young teenage woman who lives with her father, Max (Marcus Johnson) who are both struggling after the overdose death of her mother and wife, Rhea (Alexandria Steffensen). The distance between father and daughter causes Mia to constantly hang around Jade (Alexandra Jensen) and her little brother Riley (Joe Bird) who all find themselves at a party hosted by Joss and Hayley (Chris Alosio and Zoe Terakes) where the feature attraction is an embalmed left hand on a stand. Lighting a candle, gripping the hand and saying "talk to me" will cause a deformed embodiment of a deceased person to suddenly appear in front of you, and then saying "I let you in" allows the spirit to control your body - however, you only have ninety seconds to let go of the hand and must blow the candle out, lest the spirit overstay its welcome. Mia, being skeptical after seeing all the Snapchat videos of people being possessed by the hand, goes first and is grossed out by what appears infront of her. Being egged on by the others, acquiesces and allows the spirit in that mumbles threateningly at Riley.
The next night, the teens all meet up again and this time, Daniel (Jade's love interest and Mia's ex-crush, played by Otis Dhanji) has a turn with the spirit hand and in a grossly hilarious scene, ends up on the floor french-kissing a dog. After all of those present have a turn, Riley (against everyone's better judgement) has a turn with the spirit hand and the spirit that posseses him just happens to say the same things that Mia's deceased mother would have. Mia pleads for answers from the spirit which causes Riley to go over the ninety second limit - and this is when really bad things start happening. In yet another testament to the special-effects team, we first see Riley try to pluck his own eye out and then smash his face into a mantlepiece, stopped only when Jade puts her hand in the way (suffering a broken hand for her efforts). In amongst the bloody (literally) confusion, Mia runs away pondering what her mother said to her, but also dealing with the guilt of what happened to Riley.
Riley is taken to hospital where Jade and Sue (Jade and Riley's mother, played by Miranda Otto) shun Mia when she tries to visit. Just for extra laughs, Mia can now see spirits following her. In her fright, she leaves the hospital and asks Daniel to stay over with her. They (platonically) share a bed, but in the middle of the night, she is woken by a spirit who starts sucking Daniel's feet. Daniel suddenly wakes up and sees it is Mia herself sucking on his feet instead which causes him to bail.
Mia, having snuck the hand away, resumes contact with her mother who indicates that her death was not all that it seems.
Looking for answers on how to deal with the Riley situation, the friend group track down Cole who, whilst unahppy to be dealing with the trouble the hand has caused, tells the group that human bodies naturally expel the spirits over time. Realising that during Riley's possession that the candle was not blown out, Mia attempts reconnection, but all for nought - however, she sees a glimpse of Riley being groped and assaulted in the afterlife (which must have made for fun experience filming).
Mia returns home and has a heart-to-heart with Max who reads out a suicide letter written by Rhea. Mia goes to spend time alone where she is told by Rhea's spirit that the person banging on the door at the moment is an impostor and that she didn’t kill herself, as well as that Riley needs to die so that his spirit is set free. Mia is assaulted by impostor Max, and inconveniently, when the real Max attempts to get his daughter off the floor, he is stabbed in the neck for his efforts.
Mia plans to put Riley out of his misery in his hospital bed so she calls Jade at the hospital and asks her to come to her house - but this is a ruse. After being thwarted by Sue at first, Mia takes advantage of a distraction to wheel Riley outside the hospital and to a highway overpass where she plans to push him in to oncoming traffic. In the end, after another chat with Rhea, Mia is the one who falls down the embankment. After getting up, she walks back into the hospital to see Riley fully recovered and walking out with Jade and Sue, and then she sees her dad who ignores her pleas to answer her.
In the end, Mia is surrounded by darkness and then sees a light. Approaching the light, she sees a Greek teenager infront of her with the same embalmed hand saying "I let you in".
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This was a really good horror film - and surprisingly, a supernatural horror that doesn't rely on jumpscares. Yes, you get the odd person appearing out of nowhere, but definitely no jumps. I definitely enjoyed the that aspect of the viewing.
I noticed some parallels with Hereditary and It Follows - especially in the sense of an impending dread that you can't quite shake. Given that these two are horror films I have a positive opinion of, I don't mind that in the least.
If there are three criticisms to make, it is these:
First is that I felt the story didn't quite have enough flesh in it to carry it for 95 minutes. If there was some excess trimmed and it was an 85-minute film, that would have pushed it a closer to Best In Class.
The second is that if you're going to rely on the supernatural as your plot device, you need to establish the rules that it plays by. I get that because these are kids that they won't be much exposition of all the rules around the hand or the spirit world, but the lack of clarity leads to my third criticism:
The end is a bit too ambiguous. Why did Mia die instead of Riley? What connection is there between Mia's death and Riley suddenly recovering? If the body naturally expels spirits like Cole said, then why didn't that happen with his brother? And this (in my mind) is the biggest reason why this movie stays at Great and is not quite Best In Class - I felt that It Follows and Hereditary and The Ring and other classic supernatural horror movies have those established "rules" that can be followed. The "rules" here? A few too many holes.
I also really want to know what locksmith school evil spirits go to to be able to ensure doorknobs are locked at the most inconvenient times!
But now, let me get in to what I did like:
The make-up and special effects are absolutely A-plus! I freaked out at the dog kiss scene, and the foot in mouth bit really made me wince as well. And there's a shot where Mia is attempting to help Riley recover and in Riley's place on the hospital bed is a deformed old man - that make-up job and character work deserves its own Oscar!
Every actor did their job well - Sophie Wilde carried the show, and Joe Bird sold me as the tormented Riley. ESPECIALLY with that make-up job in his possession scenes! Miranda Otto is an Australian treasure as well.
Having being filmed in Adelaide, I recognised a few of the landmarks, and I knew it was filmed in South Australia by the number plates used on the cars. This actually gives it a much more low-key could-be-happening-next-door feel, adding to the dread.
But what is this movie about? I get the feeling this is an anti-drug movie. Instead of coming straight out and saying "drugs are bad, m'kay!", the Phillipou brothers have created a fictional scenario that resembles drugs - the sudden high, the doing of stupid things without being aware, the bad side effects and then what happens when you don't control your intake - so that you get the message without it being explicitly said.
Quibbles aside, definitelty a recommended watch!!!!!
STAR RATING: 4.25/5
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