Freddy here with a review of a twisting, twisted little horror movie titled WRETCH.
A wretch is defined as:
That pretty much sums up the three characters we follow in WRETCH.
Spencer Korcz plays the main character Caleb. He’s a dickhead of a friend. Swarmy to his bones. So full of himself he not only cheats on his girlfriend often, he’s secretly videotaping the encounters, presumably without the women’s knowledge. He easily manipulates his girlfriend Abby into feeling guilty for questioning him.
Megan Massie plays Abby as a strong-willed waif who ultimately isn’t strong-willed at all. She finds the video’s and instead of confronting her man, sinks into a self-dug hole. Her entire plot is centered on wanting to figure out what happened in the woods. Actually, that’s the entire plot of WRETCH in a nutshell.
Riker (Riker Hill) completes this trio of shitty people. He is friend to both of the young couple individually, while secretly pining for Abby. His role seems to be to yearn over and manipulate Abby into wanting him. He mostly does this by showcasing how shitty his best friend Caleb is.
With friends like these who needs enemies?
Riker invites the couple into the woods to smoke some new drug and when they wake up they’re all infected by dark memories of the time they lost, passed out in the forest.
That’s the entire plot in a nutshell. One night in the woods and everyone slowly slips into delusional despair. All three characters have different arcs that culminate in each falling into a pit of madness. Or are they?
The acting was really poignant at times and others it was inane.
There’s a pretty cool monster effect that works. He’s either a demon’ish creature that lords over the preceding’s or simply a piece of their subconscious. Their inner id released in shaky camera form.
The handheld aspect of this film infuriated me in the beginning. However, kudo’s to Brian Cunningham, because by the end of the film I rather liked his style of editing. I liked the voyeuristic feel I was given throughout this film. It creates an undeniable unease and shows a lot of talent in Brian’s hands. He might want to hire a cameraman next time out though, as the cinematography couldn’t ultimately be saved by his editing.
WRETCH reels you in, even with all these aspects going wrong for it. Brian Cunningham deserves tons of credit, writing, filming, editing, producing and directing this film. The story drags a bit in the middle, unsure of where it’s headed. The end of the film puts everything in context and has that ‘ick’ inducing feeling similar to the way CREEP ended.
WRETCH ultimately makes me want to see more of Brian Cunningham’s work. He gets the most out of his actors and the low budget. The movie teeters its audience back and forth between sanity and madness effectively.
WRETCH is available now on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and others. You can visit here for more info.
6 out of 10 friends will hold your hair as you retch.
Til next time Kids
Ken Lewis (AKA: Freddy Beans)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreddyBeansWrites/?ref=bookmarks
Instagram: Freddybeans13
Contact me: freddybeans@gmail.com
