A writer recognizing retrospectively rationalizing relinquishment of wrongdoing regarding certain life-altering circumstances remembers reconciliation reserves the right to reinterpreting and the redetermination of your relentless horrors.

Faye is a horror/comedy about Faye Ryan, a self help book author with titles like Tender Love and Self Care. She learns if she doesn’t have any new material by the end if the month her publisher will drop her. She goes to a cottage in the Louisiana countryside alone for a change in scenery for inspiration. Things get weird the first night of her stay when books fall off shelves, lights flicker inexplicably, and bed sheets move by themselves. She even gets physically assaulted, leaving visible hand marks somehow with no one in sight.

Starring Sarah Zanotti in the titular role, Faye deals with grief from being recently widowed during her writing sessions. I find it peculiar how I keep coming across this theme in films without looking for them specifically after losing my own husband recently. Before this, I rarely came across any. Her performance is rather bland as she doesn’t do well at conveying emotions and her depression feels hollowed because of this. There is no emotional connection. Her comedic timing is off, too. I couldn’t tell if certain lines were meant to be a joke or not because her delivery, plus some scenes were unintentionally funny.

Director Kd Amond does well at playing with light and shadows. Inventive camera tricks and angles are used keeping it visually interesting. Written by Kd Amond and Sarah Zanotti, the film meanders into tedious territory in between the horror elements. I went into this cold, not seeing previews or knowing the synopsis, but I still couldn’t help but wonder where it was going and not in a good way. It feels like it tries to be three different films at once: a paranormal horror film, a drama about the antagonizing writing process and industry pressures that follow, and a comedy about a weekend in the country, but it’s so inconsistent it becomes jarring. It tends to rely on jump scares, too, which is a pet peeve of mine. It has a few good laughs, but the balance of humour and horror is thrown off by the film’s pacing issues.

Overall, I didn’t find Faye enjoyable as a paranormal fan and couldn’t connect on an emotional level despite such a relatable theme. It’s not particularly scary, either. It’s positive message of overcoming is muddled by a messy, unfocused script and I can’t bring myself to recommend this when far superior films exist. It reminds me of The Night House from last year, but it made me wish I was watching that instead of this. Perhaps if they went through a few more drafts of the script to focus their ideas and cast a different actress in the lead it might have made a more clear emotionally resonating point. And remember, no good can come from an invitation to a cabin in the woods.

4 out of 10