Tess (Ryan Simpkins) is a teenage girl with a few issues: she’s depressed, she cuts herself, she has episodes of hallucinations and is a general handful for her mom, who is trying to raise her while her dad is deployed elsewhere in the military. Tess takes a daily cocktail of pills to help her, but it’s unclear if they really do much for her.
After moving to a new town, Tess is having difficulty fitting in. She practices her guitar, and skateboards around town (sometimes long into the night since mom works late). She begins to see visions of things that aren’t (?) there and, after a particularly violent supernatural encounter at a roadside shrine (for a girl who died on that spot), she really starts to freak out.
And with good reason. The dead girl doesn’t exactly enjoy her current circumstances and is looking to come back.
Writer/director Sonny Millhi has some great ideas percolating in his directorial debut, but they don’t really come together well. There are a few decent startles to be sure, and some creepy possession scenes, but what is intended to be a slow burn of a spooky flick, merely becomes slow. And, worst of all, predictable.
Simpkins is really good in the role of the possessed Tess, and she kept my interest through most of the proceedings. What could have devolved into overacting and mugging is turned inward, and we watch her struggle for control of her own mind in tense and suspenseful ways.
But that’s not enough to save the rest of the film. Annika Marks and Karina Logue as the mothers of the two girls in question are not given much to do, and spend most of the time either sighing in exasperation or screaming in fright. There are a lot of scenes of characters looking off in the distance, gathering their thoughts, while we wait for something to happen.
The ending is telegraphed and not a surprise twist at all like the filmmakers obviously want it to be. I really wish I liked this more, but what started as moody quiet horror just became by-the-numbers and flat. Sad face
Check out the trailer below, if you dare.
