Myca (Kara Gray) is, arguably, the black sheep of her family. Both her and her sister Devin (Lanae Hyneman) had a rough road to adulthood – ending up in the foster system, and taken in by a less-than-perfect mother, fighting years of abuse, neglect, and addiction. Myca has just returned from four months of rehabilitation, and is greeted with skepticism from her family. Devin feels an immense pull to help her sister, but knows that she’s walking a dangerous path. What Devin doesn’t realize is that what looks to be an addiction could actually be something much more dangerous, and bloody.

Myca has burned too many bridges. She’s been kicked from friend circles, she’s losing any touch with the only family she has, and in spite of Devin’s efforts, they just can’t seem to get back to before. She’s even burnt out her user and dealer friends. Despite four months of rehabilitation, within 24 hours of being home she’s back to buying drugs off of friends. Just her drug addiction would be harmful and deadly enough, but it turns out Myca has a taste for blood, and now she and Devin have to hunt down the wealthy socialite Gloria (Cindy Maples) who made her that way. After Myca makes a mess of herself (and the stage) at Devin’s bands’ show, they decide to make a run for it and start over fresh. Along the way they encounter endless obstacles and horrors – but more importantly, each of them will have to face themselves.

MORBID COLORS would be better titled, “Muddy Colors”. The script is messy, unnecessarily petulant, and an exceedingly simple concept (making comparisons between addicts and vampires – groundbreaking) is dragged out into nearly two hours of ugly, gritty mess. While I’m all for grit and grime, there should be a sense of truth and raw reality behind even the most fantastic of stories – and what I ended up picking up from MORBID COLORS was more of a sweat tinged, beer soaked meaninglessness. No deeper message is conveyed – and no sympathy or empathy ever really came into the picture. I didn’t particularly care if the girls met their goals, or what happened to them. There’s an intense unlikeability to every character of this film – which, if intentional, isn’t done with ENOUGH intention for it to feel that way. It’s yet another case of a film not being all the way committed to whatever story it’s trying to tell – and in a world where quick and dirty horror films are a dime a dozen, filmmakers need to make stronger choices and bigger impact than that.

MORBID COLORS also suffers (and I truly mean “suffers” –) from having its cast and crew wear too many hats. Lead actress Kara Gray is also credited as being makeup department head. Actors are also producers are also editors. It’s amazing anything got done and that everyone survived – because it appears upon reading the credits that everyone was working double or triple duty. In the case of MORBID COLORS this just seems to add more confusion – rather than being one cohesive unit, it’s a mixed up jumble of priorities and needs that leads to a confusing viewing experience.

I would also like to point out that yet again I am being made to watch a movie about women – completely written and directed by men. While I believe in an open playing field when it comes to filmmaking, and I want to support any artist who is making their voice heard, I am tired of seeing female narratives through a male lens. Often the tiniest details fall under the male gaze – the character’s hair (why does no woman ever pull their hair back when they should?), their clothing, the hysterics and histrionics of a woman who is hurting or suffering. No amount of female input has, in my experience, swayed a bullheaded male filmmaker – and particularly in cases like this where it’s a writer/director, it seems to fall on deaf ears.

MORBID COLORS may have had more success as a short or series than as a feature. As mentioned above, it feels drawn out, and nothing so crucial is happening as to be worth nearly two hours of screen time. While it’s abundantly clear that stylistic choices were made in efforts to be unique, it’s almost as if those choices were half-assed – not quite committed – and fall flat time and time again. MORBID COLORS can’t quite decide what it is, and neither could I.

3/10 stars