| "What if every day you re-lived your own murder?” |
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Gruesome
DVD/APPROX. 77 MINS/2006/USA RATED MA
DVD/APPROX. 77 MINS/2006/USA RATED MA
6
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Known in the USA under the title Salvage, Gruesome is a psychological puzzle of a horror movie. Although it contains functional gore effects and
competent suspense, whatever level of interest it maintains is due to the novelty of the premise. A woman gets into a car with an unfamiliar
driver, is taken home where she is beaten and murdered. A moment later she seems to wake up, alive; only to find the murderer stalking her
again. Is it in her mind? Is she trapped in a nightmarish existence wherein she must re-live her inevitable death, each time fighting it off a little
longer in differing circumstances? Gruesome questions narrative reality in homage to later-era Wes Craven in particular, and in its rather sadistic
style manages to capture the leering, sleazy delight of a misogynistic killer stalking a young woman to the point where she has lost any semblance
of reality.
This film knows that horror can be downright unpleasant rather than scary, and it is in the creation of said unpleasantness that Gruesome is most
effective, although it is far too restrained to live up to its title. Time and time again, Gruesome sets up scenes of homicidal murder only to cut
away from the details which would make them actually gruesome. One hopes that the film will get increasingly graphic but it doesn’t. Soon, the
novel premise becomes tiresome and the film seems stretched out to barely feature length with only routine conviction, despite effort by Lauren
Currie Lewis in the lead role. As the film explores its private hell of a premise, it sporadically interjects the personal details of the lead character’s
life: her mother and boyfriend. The narrative follows the lead character as she investigates the identity of the man stalking her from death to
death or dream to dream, hoping to explain her jigsaw existence.
Amongst recent direct-to-video efforts, Gruesome is perhaps a little more respectable than most, having been selected for screening in the 2006
Sundance film festival, but is typical of the style of filmmaking to emerge: mostly natural light, minimal camera movement, functional editing with a
sense of rhythm and motion, suspenseful scene building and eruptions of sudden gory violence. It’s effective but it’s still just a better class of
routine material once the ambiguities of the premise are taken into account. Some well-placed songs litter the film, but the realistic home video
look works against it. There is evidence here of talent though – attention to narrative detail, film style and psychological ambiguity – and
Gruesome is indeed efficient throughout if one is willing to entertain its budgetary shortcomings and home movie sense of aesthetics. Well-paced,
it is engaging whilst it lasts and surprisingly inventive during some of its better moments, which build to a trippy and twisted ending.
The DVD transfer is competent but undistinguished and the sound score seems a little flat. It is functional enough to carry the movie though, even
though the DVD itself has no extras beyond a trailer, stills gallery and Madman previews.
competent suspense, whatever level of interest it maintains is due to the novelty of the premise. A woman gets into a car with an unfamiliar
driver, is taken home where she is beaten and murdered. A moment later she seems to wake up, alive; only to find the murderer stalking her
again. Is it in her mind? Is she trapped in a nightmarish existence wherein she must re-live her inevitable death, each time fighting it off a little
longer in differing circumstances? Gruesome questions narrative reality in homage to later-era Wes Craven in particular, and in its rather sadistic
style manages to capture the leering, sleazy delight of a misogynistic killer stalking a young woman to the point where she has lost any semblance
of reality.
This film knows that horror can be downright unpleasant rather than scary, and it is in the creation of said unpleasantness that Gruesome is most
effective, although it is far too restrained to live up to its title. Time and time again, Gruesome sets up scenes of homicidal murder only to cut
away from the details which would make them actually gruesome. One hopes that the film will get increasingly graphic but it doesn’t. Soon, the
novel premise becomes tiresome and the film seems stretched out to barely feature length with only routine conviction, despite effort by Lauren
Currie Lewis in the lead role. As the film explores its private hell of a premise, it sporadically interjects the personal details of the lead character’s
life: her mother and boyfriend. The narrative follows the lead character as she investigates the identity of the man stalking her from death to
death or dream to dream, hoping to explain her jigsaw existence.
Amongst recent direct-to-video efforts, Gruesome is perhaps a little more respectable than most, having been selected for screening in the 2006
Sundance film festival, but is typical of the style of filmmaking to emerge: mostly natural light, minimal camera movement, functional editing with a
sense of rhythm and motion, suspenseful scene building and eruptions of sudden gory violence. It’s effective but it’s still just a better class of
routine material once the ambiguities of the premise are taken into account. Some well-placed songs litter the film, but the realistic home video
look works against it. There is evidence here of talent though – attention to narrative detail, film style and psychological ambiguity – and
Gruesome is indeed efficient throughout if one is willing to entertain its budgetary shortcomings and home movie sense of aesthetics. Well-paced,
it is engaging whilst it lasts and surprisingly inventive during some of its better moments, which build to a trippy and twisted ending.
The DVD transfer is competent but undistinguished and the sound score seems a little flat. It is functional enough to carry the movie though, even
though the DVD itself has no extras beyond a trailer, stills gallery and Madman previews.
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