My quick rating - 5.8/10. So far I hear J.K. Simmons voice behind the hole in the wall, or the "glory hole" if you will. After a breakup, Wes (Ryan Kwanten) ends up at a remote rest stop. He finds himself locked inside the bathroom with a mysterious figure speaking from an adjacent stall (Simmons). Soon Wes realizes he is involved in a situation more terrible than he could imagine. That is the mild way of putting it when you get yourself stuck in a Lovecraftian universe right on the brink of cosmic horror. For being a Shudder flick, it is far deeper than you would expect. Without breaking down the story in what I think happened (this is one that there can be multiple opinions so I am not even sure I am correct) this tells a tale of Wes and his depression after losing his girlfriend, Brenda (Sylvia Grace Crim). As I mentioned, he tries to drink his sorrow away at a rest stop and while puking in the bathroom ends up in a very serious conversation with a voice that claims to be "Ghat", or what he perceives is g-d. You would need to know a little about H. P. Lovecraft here to know Ghatanothoa was a hellish god or patron daemon brought to Earth but normally spent his time imprisoned, and in this movie, claims it was in the ether. If you go in without any idea of this subject matter, the whole thing makes absolutely no sense. However, just that tiny bit of knowledge will help you understand a bit more about why these two may have met up in the restroom. I actually watched this one twice, and the second go-round did clue me in a lot on the clues being dropped along the way so you would need to be paying attention to verbal detail to fully appreciate this one. The two do act well and play off each other's cues to make the situation plausible. There isn't much action since the vast majority of the time the banter takes place in the bathroom. The only other character to enter the storyline is Gary (André Lamar) who has one singular purpose here and fulfills it in a manner I assume any of us would. I can only say that it is a pretty interesting story that tells a tale in a way you must formulate your own ideas. It won't be all confusing if you don't completely put it together and you can even take it at face value without all the hidden mythos references and still get a unique experience. It certainly has originality in abundance, I just wish it had forced a bit more horror into the story. Rebekah McKendry cut this one in at 79 minutes so a little embellishing in the terror or gore department would've been fine with me. Still an entertaining indie flick that flies under the radar for you.
Streaming on AMC+ as part of your subscription with Prime Video if you click the poster below.
Comments