A struggling writer takes a stranger for a housemate.
Directed by: William Dickerson
Starring: Kate Burton, Cassidy Freeman, Lucy Griffiths, Roddy Piper, Tyler Jacob Moore
This film plays on elevating levels of the human mind, and takes the psychological thriller to a sharp peak. I didn’t have any prior knowledge of what this film was about, story or genre wise, so found it pleasantly interesting to sit back and watch the drama unfold. It has moments of slower pacing, and perhaps the typical thriller twist is too perplexing, but I cannot deny that all the juicy storytelling beforehand is worth the ride.
Director William Dickerson does a good job here in letting the suspense of this dark thriller breathe. It can at times feel slow, especially in the opening act, which makes it hard to keep engaged, but once the suspicions of the Peyton character come to correct fruition, the movie amps up a gear or two. Dickerson also helped script the film, and it is a very thick plot with characters' pasts and present situations all layering together to craft a worrying sense of dread and darkness throughout. The ending could lose a few people though, and I fear the climax is written a tad too much in thinking of the biggest U-turn possible; also it’s one that people might see coming. All in all, I believe the latter stages of this story are ones to divide and be liked or disliked.
There’s fantastic music that bubbles away like a simmering pan on the boil, which is of course necessary for a thriller film. Without the right music, the tension would fall flat, and all atmosphere would be non-existent. Mj Mynarski heads up the music and credit to him for a job well done. This moody score works lovely with the cinematography by Robert Kraetsch, who definitely has an eye for capturing beauty and danger in equal measure. The slow motion cascading of popsicle sticks is a stand out moment, and the use of Peyton’s camera becomes a neat little tool. Back to the grander scale of cinematography, the woody location and the new house for Nora are suitably atmospheric for the thriller genre.
6/10