I had high hopes for this one, based on the casting alone. Gene Jones was pretty terrific in Ti West's so-so "The Sacrament," and Kristina Klebe knocked a small but vital role out of the park in Zack Parker's stark and disturbing "Proxy".
Jones plays a Vietnam Vet who's had a stroke and Klebe is the home health care nurse assigned to his case. But it's painfully obvious that this nurse has a special fascination with, well, pain, as in seeing it inflicted.
The concept of a helpless person being tormented by a sinister "care giver" is not exactly a new one. By itself, it's squirm-inducing and one of the best examples I remember seeing is the Spanish 1986 thriller In a Glass Cage about a paralyzed Nazi pedophile tortured by one of his former victims. These films aren't pleasant to sit through, in general, so they require a pretty damn good story and good performances to chew on.
It's a shame that DP Mike Testin's first directorial outing has such a clunker of a script (written by Meredith Berg - whose only others credits are a short and "Lana Steele: Makeup Spy"). It takes no brains at all to figure out who Nurse Michelle (Klebe) is, why she's at George's house and even how she found him --- all in about 20 minutes. There is virtually no suspense or any tension for the rest of the film.
While Jones gives the role his all, and is very convincing playing a basically unlikable character (in all fairness, I did admire how the script never backed down and soft-pedaled his PTSD raging), Klebe's performance is so unhinged and over-the-top (she twists the head off a Barbie in a check-out line, if you can believe that --- why not just hang a sign around her neck with a prescription for Thorazine attached?) that it borders on comic. I really don't think she had much to play. If so, it wasn't apparent from what got to the screen.
What is obviously in Berg's resume is the Nancy Drew style sleuthing that George's granddaughter Shelby (Hassie Harrison) gets up to, but this isn't handled with any suspense or flair either. It's very TV- like in pace and dialog. Harrison does well, but she isn't given much depth to portray either.
The lack of suspense is really what kills this one. Mark it Do Not Resuscitate and move on.
Note: For a far more realistic horror film on the realities of living with Dementia, see "The Sideways Light". No plot gimmicks or SFX apply here. The truth is horrific enough.
Jones plays a Vietnam Vet who's had a stroke and Klebe is the home health care nurse assigned to his case. But it's painfully obvious that this nurse has a special fascination with, well, pain, as in seeing it inflicted.
The concept of a helpless person being tormented by a sinister "care giver" is not exactly a new one. By itself, it's squirm-inducing and one of the best examples I remember seeing is the Spanish 1986 thriller In a Glass Cage about a paralyzed Nazi pedophile tortured by one of his former victims. These films aren't pleasant to sit through, in general, so they require a pretty damn good story and good performances to chew on.
It's a shame that DP Mike Testin's first directorial outing has such a clunker of a script (written by Meredith Berg - whose only others credits are a short and "Lana Steele: Makeup Spy"). It takes no brains at all to figure out who Nurse Michelle (Klebe) is, why she's at George's house and even how she found him --- all in about 20 minutes. There is virtually no suspense or any tension for the rest of the film.
While Jones gives the role his all, and is very convincing playing a basically unlikable character (in all fairness, I did admire how the script never backed down and soft-pedaled his PTSD raging), Klebe's performance is so unhinged and over-the-top (she twists the head off a Barbie in a check-out line, if you can believe that --- why not just hang a sign around her neck with a prescription for Thorazine attached?) that it borders on comic. I really don't think she had much to play. If so, it wasn't apparent from what got to the screen.
What is obviously in Berg's resume is the Nancy Drew style sleuthing that George's granddaughter Shelby (Hassie Harrison) gets up to, but this isn't handled with any suspense or flair either. It's very TV- like in pace and dialog. Harrison does well, but she isn't given much depth to portray either.
The lack of suspense is really what kills this one. Mark it Do Not Resuscitate and move on.
Note: For a far more realistic horror film on the realities of living with Dementia, see "The Sideways Light". No plot gimmicks or SFX apply here. The truth is horrific enough.