From Black (2023)

May 15, 2023 7:54 AM

Cora (Anna Camp) has been crushed by guilt and shame after the disappearance of her young son five years previously. Abel (John Ales) the enigmatic leader of her support group offers her a bizarre opportunity to learn the truth and set things right.

Also starring Jennifer Lafleur, Travis Hammer, Eduardo Campirano III, Ritchie Montgomery, Kenneth Ford, Alicia S Mason, Ian Casselberry.

Directed, co-produced, and co-written by Thomas Marchese.

33% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

A Shudder original. JustWatch listing.

posted by DirtyOldTown (1 comment total)

I watched the first half of this movie and thought Wow, how are all of the reviews this wrong? This is great.

And then I saw the second half.

Anna Camp does terrific work here. And John Ales is hypnotic, playing the kind of person who answers every question so sideways that you lose track of what you were wanting to know.

The first half, about Cora's grief, her cop sister's awkward attempts to help her, and the support group are very well done.

The thing is, once the ritual kicks in everything goes south. There's not a lot to it, for one. And the filmmaker being less interested in the part that should feel like a payoff is deadly. They also commit the sin of showing the monster too much and having it speak. It... does not work. They also pretty much abandon Cora's drug addiction as a story element, which is weird.

This is highly reminiscent of A Dark Song and you should probably watch that instead as it's much better.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:34 AM on May 15, 2023