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TADFF Review: ‘The Wretched’ Builds a Frightening New Folktale

Published

4 years ago

October 27, 2019

Written and directed by brothers Brett and Drew Pierce, The Wretched is a twisted fairy tale that creates its own fun and freaky folklore. With the sensibilities of a classic 80s horror and the spark of a modern indie horror, the film strikes a good balance to introduce its own ideas.

In a bit of a witchy mix between Rear Window and Fright Night, the film follows defiant teenage Ben who — with a broken arm and his parents facing an imminent divorce — is sent to spend his summer with his father in a small coastal town. As Ben casually observes his new neighborhood, he begins to notice strange activity and soon finds himself facing off against a thousand year-old witch that wears the skin of her victims to accomplish her gruesome goals.

The technical elements of The Wretched are thoroughly impressive. For the sound design, the Pierce brothers found the perfect fit with Eliot Connors, whose other sound design credits include Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Aquaman, and Star Trek Beyond. So much of the terror of the film is steeped in the crunching, snapping, and slopping sounds that crawl under your skin; they’re visceral. You can feel every sound effect shiver through you, enriching an image that’s only partially visual.

via Toronto After Dark

The lighting draws focus and elevates atmosphere, pulling the audience deep into the dark woods of the story. Shifting from bright daylight in the open air of a marina to the focused point of a flashlight or porch light when all else is steeped in darkness, the lighting leads us through the tone of each scene. It highlights just the right elements, plunging all else in shadow — which gives graceful flexibility to the film’s practical effects.

Exemplary practical effects are in the Pierce brothers’ blood — their father worked on the effects for The Evil Dead back in 1981. Part of the magic of creating your own monster lore is that you can really control its rules and details. The Pierce brothers take full advantage of this, developing a vocabulary of effects and effective visuals to build their beast.

Shifting skin and ragged talons punctuate the witch’s feral design as she claws her way through each scene. Her presence is announced by tearing flesh, masterfully accomplished by the effects team. One performance-based effect is the twitching, snapping physicality of the witch. It’s a simple detail, but it’s consistently creepy as hell.

via Toronto After Dark

As connoisseurs of horror films, it’s easy to become jaded by the tolerance we build to any horrific elements. It becomes a bragging point to announce that a film simply wasn’t scary. Watching The Wretched, I thought on what the film must feel like for the casual audience member who perhaps hasn’t developed that thick skin. I imagine it would certainly be effective. Instead of relying on jump scares, the film uses mood and tension to escalate the danger — and it’s genuinely scary. If you’re looking to tickle that part of your brain that longs for a classic spine-tingling atmospheric horror, The Wretched has you covered.

In the spirit of traditional fairy tales and classic 80s horror, it’s the children who are in real danger. When it comes to its victims, The Wretched pulls no punches. We are confronted with the reality of the witch’s hunt early on in a shocking sequence that sets the tone for the rest of the film. Nothing is sacred and no one is safe.

via Toronto After Dark

Overall, each actor’s performance is on point — there are no real weak links here. But the standout characters are the three female leads; Mallory (Piper Curda), Abbie (Zarah Mahler), and Sara (Azie Tesfai). Each character is well rounded with strong personality and gumption, presenting traditional roles in an atypical way. The teen love interest, Mallory, is an endearing and quirky comic relief. Young mother Abbie is a confident, tattooed, deer dressing dynamo. Dad’s new girlfriend, Sara, has her own sense of agency outside of that relationship — she doesn’t have a large presence in the film, but she’s very well utilized.

These archetypes aren’t uncommon at all, but they’re often presented in a rather two-dimensional, stereotypical way. The Wretched treats these characters as the unique individuals they are, with each actress breathing life into their role. Notably, Curda as Mallory is wonderfully charming and she steals every scene she’s in.

Ultimately, The Wretched has the bones of a classic 80s horror, but has been polished and refurbished to make an entirely different beast. The Pierce brothers obviously put a great deal of love and care into the film, showing their passion for the art of filmmaking and the horror genre as a whole. It’s a humble offering, but it shows great promise for the future. We’ll just hope they don’t shed that horror skin.

The Wretched via IMDb

The Wretched is now available to rent on most streaming services.

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Russell Crowe To Star in Another Exorcism Movie & It’s Not a Sequel

Published

19 hours ago

April 22, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Maybe it’s because The Exorcist just celebrated its 50th-anniversary last year, or maybe it’s because aging Academy Award-winning actors aren’t too proud to take on obscure roles, but Russell Crowe is visiting the Devil once again in yet another possession film. And it’s not related to his last one, The Pope’s Exorcist.

According to Collider, the film titled The Exorcism was originally going to be released under the name The Georgetown Project. Rights for its North American release were once in the hands of Miramax but then went to Vertical Entertainment. It will release on June 7 in theaters then head over to Shudder for subscribers.

Crowe will also star in this year’s upcoming Kraven the Hunter which is set to drop in theaters on August 30.

As for The Exorcism, Collider provides us with what it’s about:

“The film centers around actor Anthony Miller (Crowe), whose troubles come to the forefront as he shoots a supernatural horror movie. His estranged daughter (Ryan Simpkins) has to figure out whether he’s lapsing into his past addictions, or if something even more horrific is occurring. “

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Movies

New F-Bomb Laden ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Trailer: Bloody Buddy Movie

Published

22 hours ago

April 22, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Deadpool & Wolverine might be the buddy movie of the decade. The two heterodox superheroes are back in the latest trailer for the summer blockbuster, this time with more f-bombs than a gangster film.

‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Movie Trailer

This time the focus is on Wolverine played by Hugh Jackman. The adamantium-infused X-Man is having a bit of a pity party when Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) arrives on the scene who then tries to convince him to team up for selfish reasons. The result is a profanity-filled trailer with a Strange surprise at the end.

Deadpool & Wolverine is one of the most anticipated movies of the year. It comes out on July 26. Here is the latest trailer, and we suggest if you are at work and your space isn’t private, you might want to put in headphones.

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Original Blair Witch Cast Ask Lionsgate for Retroactive Residuals in Light of New Film

Published

2 days ago

April 21, 2024

Cameron McFarland

Jason Blum is planning to reboot The Blair Witch Project for the second time. That’s a fairly large task considering none of the reboots or sequels have managed to capture the magic of the 1999 film that brought found footage into the mainstream.

This idea has not been lost on the original Blair Witch cast, who has recently reached out to Lionsgate to ask for what they feel is fair compensation for their role in the pivotal film. Lionsgate gained access to The Blair Witch Project in 2003 when they purchased Artisan Entertainment.

However, Artisan Entertainment was an independent studio before its purchase, meaning the actors were not part of SAG-AFTRA. As a result, the cast are not entitled to the same residuals from the project as actors in other major films. The cast doesn’t feel that the studio should be able to continue to profit off of their hard work and likenesses without fair compensation.

Their most recent request asks for “meaningful consultation on any future ‘Blair Witch’ reboot, sequel, prequel, toy, game, ride, escape room, etc., in which one could reasonably assume that Heather, Michael & Josh’s names and/or likenesses will be associated for promotional purposes in the public sphere.”

At this time, Lionsgate has not offered any comment about this issue.

The full statement made by the cast can be found below.

OUR ASKS OF LIONSGATE (From Heather, Michael & Josh, stars of “The Blair Witch Project”):

1. Retroactive + future residual payments to Heather, Michael and Josh for acting services rendered in the original BWP, equivalent to the sum that would’ve been allotted through SAG-AFTRA, had we had proper union or legal representation when the film was made.

2. Meaningful consultation on any future Blair Witch reboot, sequel, prequel, toy, game, ride, escape room, etc…, in which one could reasonably assume that Heather, Michael & Josh’s names and/or likenesses will be associated for promotional purposes in the public sphere.

Note: Our film has now been rebooted twice, both times were a disappointment from a fan/box office/critical perspective. Neither of these films were made with significant creative input from the original team. As the insiders who created the Blair Witch and have been listening to what fans love & want for 25 years, we’re your single greatest, yet thus-far un-utilized secret-weapon!

3. “The Blair Witch Grant”: A 60k grant (the budget of our original movie), paid out yearly by Lionsgate, to an unknown/aspiring genre filmmaker to assist in making theirfirst feature film. This is a GRANT, not a development fund, hence Lionsgate will not own any of the underlying rights to the project.

A PUBLIC STATEMENT FROM THE DIRECTORS & PRODUCERS OF “THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT”:

As we near the 25th anniversary of The Blair Witch Project, our pride in the storyworld we created and the film we produced is reaffirmed by the recent announcement of a reboot by horror icons Jason Blum and James Wan.

While we, the original filmmakers, respect Lionsgate’s right to monetize the intellectual property as it sees fit, we must highlight the significant contributions of the original cast — Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Mike Williams. As the literal faces of what has become a franchise, their likenesses, voices, and real names are inseparably tied to The Blair Witch Project. Their unique contributions not only defined the film’s authenticity but continue to resonate with audiences around the world.

We celebrate our film’s legacy, and equally, we believe the actors deserve to be celebrated for their enduring association with the franchise.

Sincerely, Eduardo Sanchez, Dan Myrick, Gregg Hale, Robin Cowie, and Michael Monello