Cinematography:
Conor MurphyComposer:
Devin BurrowsCast:
John-Paul Howard, Piper Curda, Jamison Jones, Azie Tesfai, Kevin Bigley, Tug Coker, Zarah Mahler, Gabriela Quezada, Blane Crockarell, Richard Ellis (more)Plots(1)
Distressed by his parents’ forthcoming divorce and hoping to clear his head, 17-year-old Ben (John-Paul Howard) visits his father for the summer. He quickly becomes aware of horrific happenings taking place on his street. A centuries-old evil is terrorizing the young family next door. Stemming from the nearby woods, and soon residing in the very skin of the mother, it begins preying upon the local children. Ben tries to get help. No one believes him. If he wants to save the town, he’ll somehow have to go at it alone. Meanwhile, off in the woods, voices are calling out to people from the base of an ancient, rotting tree… (Fantasia International Film Festival)
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Reviews (7)
Very good horror for 12 year-olds, and I don’t mean it in a bad way. It has likeable characters and a vicious demon immersed in an original concept, though in the end it surrenders to a well-known template, giving up the chance to surprise or shock. To watch once, though, it’s alright, especially perhaps with an easily scared girlfriend after a glass of wine (I watched it alone after several beers and maybe that’s why I’m not more satisfied). 60%
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Solid and atmospheric witch horror! I've been waiting for The Wretched for quite a long time and the positive feedback from festivals only confirmed that this is a really good piece of work. The story focuses on a young teenager who notices the strange behaviour of his neighbour, who transforms into a 1000 year old witch, and an atmospheric old school inferno begins. The film has a very good atmosphere, an interesting mythological backstory, perfect make-up work, enough suspense and likeable actors to keep the viewer's attention. The finale underground is quite possibly the scariest sequence of the year so far. Surprise. Story***, Action***, Humor>No, Violence***, Entertainment****, Music***, Visual****, Atmosphere****, Suspense****. 7.5/10.
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In terms of style, I didn’t find anything interesting in The Wretched, it felt like made in some sort of horror directors’ mill. Everything is rather passable, but not very creatively or innovatively executed. But this is enough for an average and mildly laudatory rating, taking into account that it’s a harmless consumer B-movie that hardly any fan will find offensive. What is definitely worth praise is one little twist related to the unreliable narrator, with I found very nicely put together, and for a moment took me by surprise because I was not expecting it in this not very ambitious type of film.
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I had hoped to be more forgiving when Pierce ditched the slapstick, that crunchy girl at the end is pretty cool, and crawling through underground tunnels with a gun always gives me flashbacks to the Vietcong. But it's really not worth it. The film spends most of its time trying to build some sort of rapport between the characters, revealing what terrible dead wood everyone involved is in terms of acting. Plus, a third of the dialogue is about food, because people probably don't have any other topics these days. The film could have ended about halfway through if the protagonist hadn't started babbling complete nonsense and instead just mentioned the neighbors' missing child. It feels artificial because the medium close-ups and close-ups have an exaggerated depth of field that pulls the characters out of their surroundings, and if I'm trying to create the illusion of menace coming from the forest, it’s simply not going to work unless I can shoot the forest in such a way that it doesn't feel like an city park.
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A generally tolerable horror flick with some interesting visual ideas and, most of all, relatively sympathetic central characters (which similar movies often don’t have). It borrows various elements from Fright Night, Evil Dead and Disturbia, except The Wretched does not specify the powers and limitations of the witch, so that new things happen more or less all the time, as if the screenwriters had thrown in anything that came handy. For a while, I wondered if the story twist in the last third of the film made any sense. But I then concluded that it simply doesn’t matter, because the twist is completely irrelevant and futile, doesn’t take the movie anywhere nor does it redistribute the cards—it only creates that instant WTF effect, which dissolves as quick as it came. With a cohesive concept, it could have been very decent.
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Gallery (45)
Photo © IFC Midnight
![The Wretched - Photos](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/164/629/164629569_16fb85.jpg)
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