Lucas (August Maturo) and his older brother Tom (Mike Manning) play a game they call Slapface, where they sit facing each other and hit each other in the face with increasing strength until Tom ends the activity. Because he is younger by about ten years, Lucas cannot hit as hard as his brother, who truly wallops him, but the kid is used to it ever since their parents died and left Tom to bring him up in an isolated house in the forest. Lucas does not have any friends, indeed the closest he can claim are three girls who relentlessly bully him, beating him up and making him go on, at times, dangerous dares to placate their venom.
But what if he did find a friend on one of those dares? Would that make things better? And what if the new friend was violent? An air of dread hung over the story here, as the characters have little concept of the damage they are capable of and indeed are causing, and it is only a matter of time before someone goes too far. You could say they have gone too far already, though as this was a horror movie you would be correct to expect doom looming for at least some of them. The only character who seems to recognise that this chaos around Lucas will result in tragedy is the local police chief (Dan Hedaya), yet despite having a word with Tom that the kid is heading down a grimmer path than he realises, the elder brother is unable to rein him in.
He may actually be making things worse, creating a home environment best described as toxic, to use a very twenty-first century word. This was very well acted, from the children to the adults (there were some who had worked with Disney, obviously a training ground for cultivating young talent, though this really wasn't the brand's usual fare) and Maturo came across as an innocent unaware of his potential for violence even when he appeared to be the source of the problems. But was he really? Or was the source of the problems those who exploited his vulnerability to give themselves a boost, as someone lower down the social pecking order can to those who frankly, see bullying as how the world works and can excuse their actions with a conscience that may not be clear, but can be ignored.
Ignoring the results of vindictive actions being a major part of what was preoccupying this movie. Writer and director Jeremiah Kipp adapted his short film here, which in turn had been adapted from what we were told were his childhood experiences, not too closely, one hoped. Nevertheless, there was a caption at the end of this revealing the piece's true message: advice on what to do if you are bullied. The fact that this was a horror movie aimed at adults suggested Kipp might have been better pitching it a bit younger, to increase the chances of picked on children to understand what was happening to them was definitely not OK, but then again Kipp could have been aiming his cautionary tale at those who take their suffering into adulthood, or have it inflicted on them, more pertinently.
Equally, this could have been a wake up call to the bullies by exposing the moral bankruptcy of their behaviour, and a plea to change their ways before it hopelessly corrupts their personalities for good (or bad). The consequences of this type of abuse loomed throughout: normalising victimisation in everyday life can cause the victim to lash out, not necessarily at the bullies, sometimes at themselves, but here Lukas conjures a murderous version of his dead mother to dole out his revenge, which he does not particularly wish to happen. It's just that the cycle needs a break, and that break can be tragic. If this was a little one-note, and scenes jerkily moved into others with a flow that was far from smooth but did concoct a mood of unstoppable nightmare that grew in each successive act of aggression, that was excusable for the themes were important. Would it do any good? It might not turn a bullying addict, but those on the receiving end could feel as if someone understands and try to do something to solve their problems. Music by Barry J. Neely.
[SLAPFACE is a Shudder original film which will premiere exclusively on the AMC Networks' premium streaming service on 3rd February.]
