Up next we have a piece from A24—one that could almost go alongside Conclave. People have certainly noted it down as a highlight among recent horror, but how did it turn out for me?
The premise is very simple—it’s a case where the execution turns out better than the summary. Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East are wide-eyed Mormon missionaries assigned to a house of a seemingly slightly eccentric Hugh Grant, whose friendliness soon turns into what looks like a rather overly keen desire to debate them on their beliefs…and things go much weirder and more intense from there.
It sounds kinda silly and stage play-ish at first, but what makes it work are the performances—how do you make Hugh Grant seem unsettling? Maybe a little unsurprisingly, you just take that usual trying-a-bit-too-hard to be a polite overly chipper Englishman schtick as in Notting Hill and apply it to someone who’s locking you in his house while clearly lying out of his teeth, and the effect works well enough. Our heroines likewise might play things a bit naive at first but as things go on there’s clearly more going on with them, right up until the very end where you want to see them stick it once and for all to a gurning weirdo.
And of course the theme here is all about religion—sort of tying into that David Foster Wallace quote about how everyone, in some way, worships something, be it God, ideology, or simply one’s ego. It doesn’t take long to figure out what’s what here. Grant’s positing here are the usual sort of internet-y ones that may seem convincing at first but don’t hold up to factual scrutiny, as one of the characters points out—but of course, our heroines might not be as ironclad in faith as they are either way. The point is less about the validity of religion and more about how the extremes of being utterly rigid in something go into something else altogether.
It’s expressed well enough that it keeps you going with enough twists and turns over the latter act—though at some point you have to wonder about the logistics of Mr. Grant’s operation here. Either way, for a straightforward enough premise, it’s certainly entertaining—I perhaps found it just a little overhyped but only by a notch. Give it a watch if you can.
Comments
Post a Comment