Singer/songwriter/pizza deliveryman Alex Romero (Jonny Beauchamp) has gotten sober, got a good friend in Gracie (Ashleigh Murray), and has a therapist recommending he confront his abusive father. When he goes to do so he finds his father murdered. The bad news is no closure; the good news is he inherits his father’s house.  The bad news is he inherits his father’s mortgage; the good news is he and Gracie can afford to keep it and move out of their “tiny shithole apartment” if they can find a roommate.  The real bad news is the roommate they find is Shane (Mike Manning).

Shane is an alpha male that wants Alex to be a man.  He offers to train him, offers to teach him, and offers to have sex with him. From the second he moves in, Shane manipulates Alex and tries to get him to be more of a toxic male himself, cutting Gracie out of the relationship and encouraging Alex to be abusive to the men he dates.  Just when you think Shane is a straight up psychopath roomie we’ve seen a hundred times, writer/director Jay truly complicates the character in multiple ways.  Faster than you can say “Dexter” Alex (and the audience) learn that Shane pretends to be an escort looking for people on the sex offender registry who have assaulted teenagers. He tells Alex, “People pay for my company. I look up their address.  If they’re not on a list then everyone has a good time.  If they are, then I do the right thing.” Alex thinks these offenders deserve a second chance; Shane thinks he is doing God’s work. When he brings Alex on one of his missions, things fall apart.

What was a simple thriller becomes a more complex rumination on second chances, love and forgiveness.  “I kill monsters,” Shane tells Alex. “Who hurt you?” Alex asks.  Alex’s approach to life was clearly not working; Shane’s toxic vengeance is more problematic. But it awakens in Alex the need to get courage, take control of his life, and start doing the right thing. The problem is, you might learn to swim faster because of the shark in the water, but that doesn’t get rid of the shark. Shane thought Alex might become a partner, but since he will not, then everyone in Alex’s life must be destroyed.  The climax reveals the things we have suspected all along, how and why Shane is the way he is and what Alex will do in response. A stinger at the end provides a final twist; fun, but neither necessary nor organic to the story.

The main character is more acted upon than acting, but does have a clear arc. Manning loads Shane with menace, but struggles to show the character’s vulnerability and the trauma from which he is acting out.  The film ends with a cautionary text about abuse and encouraging those suffering from it to seek help, although I suspect watching this film might trigger such individuals long before they get to the end credits.

Solid performances and an interesting script are the strengths of The Way Out, but the film is very dark, not just in the metaphoric sense (though it is that), I mean the lighting and cinematography. Scenes look like they were filmed with a flashlight in the next room.  It is often hard to see what is going on. While it works thematically, it works against the film because we cannot always tell what is on the screen or who is doing what.  It is a shame, as most of the climax plays out in the dark with just flashes of a face, seemingly lit by the interior of a car light in the garage next door.

7 out of 10