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Gruesome
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| Year: |
2006
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Director: |
Jeff Crook, Josh Crook
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| Stars: |
Lauren Currie Lewis, Cody Darbe, Chris Ferry, Maureen Olander, John P. Miller, Jessica DeLong, Sam Dahler, John Briley, Joseph M. Columbo, Adam Morris, Maureen Wagner, Georgine A. Timko, Rodney Hupp, Brandon H. Chapman, Jeff Crook
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| Genre: |
Horror |
| Rating: |
  6 (from 1 vote) |
| Review: |
Originally titled Salvage, this offbeat indie horror has been something of a festival favourite in the States. Winsome, checkout girl Claire Parker (Lauren Currie Lewis) unwisely accepts a ride home from creepy redneck Duke Desmond (Chris Ferry), who brutally bludgeons her to death. Next thing you know, she wakes up back at work, the previous event presumably a dream. However, Claire finds herself trapped in a reoccurring nightmare, continually stalked and slain by the madman. The police are wholly sceptical, since Desmond was apparently shot dead months ago, while neither Claire’s mother (Maureen Olander), boyfriend Jimmy (Cody Darbe), and concerned friend Jen (Jessica DeLong) seem able to help. It’s up to Claire to put all the pieces together, and what she discovers turns her world upside down.
Gruesome boasts a sharper script and more committed performances than much low-budget horror fare clogging up video shelves. While its big, scary twist may be over-familiar, the slow-burning drama remains consistently gripping and peppered with solid scares. One horrific, face-peeling torture scene is deeply disturbing without being all that explicit, but sibling filmmakers Jeff Crook and Josh Crook rely mostly on suggestively creepy details. The most spine-tingling moments occur whenever Claire half-glimpses Desmond leering from behind, or on a security camera, or as a face on a steamy, bathroom mirror where her reflection should be.
Newcomer Lauren Currie Lewis carries the film exceptionally well, while the script portrays a believably immature teen relationship with dim-bulb Jimmy, who keeps inquiring after a threesome with Jen at inopportune moments. There are moments of sly, observational humour including an unhelpful librarian and the moment a detective accuses Claire of being high, only for her to blurt out: “Before you became a cop you used to sell us grass!” A grunge rock soundtrack proves occasionally intrusive, deflating some of the carefully wrought tension. This is a film that works best during moments of quiet unease, as when Desmond briefly becomes the one person who speaks the truth (“The only thing that’s real is what you feel”), and when Claire rings the police only to be told: “I can’t tell you what’s going on, Claire. You’re going to find out soon enough.”
Like many horror movies over-reliant on a big, twist ending, this winds up more a Twilight Zone style anecdote than a fully formed story. Nonetheless, it is a cut above and well worth a watch.
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| Reviewer: |
Andrew Pragasam
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