Saturday December 10th in Chicago. This was the first half of a Netflix double feature. This film premiered at the 2016 SXSW Festival and got a limited release in September. My wife and I were under the impression that this was a horror film but it turned out to be more of a psychological thriller considering no one got chopped up.
The film focuses on two teenagers; Ethan (Logan Miller) and Sean (Keir Gilchrist) and their "experiment" to drive their neighbor Mr. Grainey (James Caan) to the brink of insanity by making him think his house is haunted. Ethan comes up with the plan and Sean supplies the surveillance equipment. Their plan seems to be gong along nicely. They agitate Grainey at one point with a screen door that he uses an axe to destroy the door. The thing that bothers Ethan and Sean is that Grainey spends a lot of time in the locked basement, up to several hours a day. This leads Ethan and Sean to the "natural" conclusion that Grainey's got someone held prisoner down there. Ethan is always the one pushing to hassle Grainey more. Sean finds out that Ethan believes that Grainey had a hand in sending his father to jail after a domestic incident. When Sean wants to pull out of the "experiment," Ethan reminds him that he purchased the surveillance equipment and his fingerprints are all over them.
The time comes for the boys to break into Grainey's home (again) to see what exactly is in the basement after they arranged for a cop to search it but they didn't believe the cop "looked hard enough." Ethan breaks into the house, this time with a gun, and gets into the basement. When he gets down there, he's surprised to find keepsakes. He takes a bell and places upstairs on a table. Grainey sees the bell and reacts. The police show up.
This was a really good picture. Director Kasra Farahani put together a real nice film here by intercutting flashbacks, court room scenes that occurred after the 2nd break in and the original narrative itself. Each piece keeps the viewer a little off balance until the film's climax. The flashback scenes contain bits of Grainey's exposition where maybe he is the jerk that Ethan makes him out to be but other flashbacks paint a different picture. Solid acting, especially by Caan. The only real problems I had were the fact that all of the surveillance took place in the Fall when Sean and Ethan were supposed to be at school. Ethan's mom (Anne Dudek) worked nights but I doubt Ethan could've gotten away with some of his antics. Sean's parents, who we never really see, don't seem to mind that their son spends a huge chunk of time at Ethan's place either. The film has a 98 minute run time and sometimes drags a bit.
This was a really interesting and good film. An interesting ending and a bit of a message at the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment