Well, this is an odd one. Not just because this is an Irish
horror-comedy that makes for one of the weirder entries in that genre hybrid
I’ve seen in years, but because of the reception this film has already
garnered. It is one of the many films of 2019 that has managed to snag a
perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a notion only made weirder when it sets
in that there have been zero 0% ratings this year.
As someone who in the last couple years has actually started
being listed on the website proper (not for these reviews, but for the ones on
FilmInk… for now, at least), and who occasionally wonders if I like too many
movies to be considered a credible critic (feel free to decide amongst
yourselves which part of that statement is the most ridiculous), this seems
off for one of the bigger touchstones of the industry I work in, not to mention
intimidating to be looking at a movie that everyone else seems to like without
caveat. Thankfully, while I don’t think it’s out-and-out brilliant, I can at
least get how it would garner that much positive buzz.
The story here is actually three stories that wind around
each other. The first is that of Rose, a driving instructor who struggles with
both her dead father and how she has the same talent for talking to ghosts that
he did. The second is that of Martin Martin (no, my spell-check isn’t on the
blink, that’s actually his name), whose wife is still being over-bearing and
controlling from beyond the grave. And the third is that of Christian Winter, a
faded rock star who hatches a plan to sacrifice a virgin to the Devil so that
he can make more music and get rid of his ‘one-hit wonder’ status.
I specify these three as separate stories as, while they
definitely overlap, the connective tissue between them is basically that they
are all involved with the supernatural in some way. It’s also because all three
of them work for entirely different reasons from each other, again adding to
how unintentionally anthological this ends up being.
With Rose, it’s a layered communication with the dead as she
comes to terms with the unfinished business of the dead attached to her later
clients, while also dealing with the circumstances around her father’s death.
With Martin, it’s basically a domestic abuse situation turned on its head, with
his wife refusing to agree with “till death do us part” and not allowing Martin
and their daughter to move on. And with Christian, aside from Will Forte’s fun
performance, it basically plays out like Jennifer’s Body if the emo band in
question was Hawthorne Heights.
It coasts a lot on its approach to the supernatural in the
mundane world, which admittedly hits some humourous notes. From ghosts
possessing everyday objects like pebbles and wheelie bins, to Rose’s father
having a VHS series featuring him exploring the paranormal, to how possession
results in throwing up copious amounts of what I’ll take the film’s word for as
being ‘ectoplasm’. That along with the quite Irish sense of humour on display
end up easing the looseness of the plot, giving the film a certain What We Do
In The Shadows vibe in how it treats horror tropes and narrative.
It admittedly goes a little pear-shaped at the end, where
the script’s treatment of sex goes down some weirder directions that I think
the filmmakers were ready to deal with, but by the time it hits its
close-to-perfect final quip, the head rush ends up overriding whatever griping
I would have had. The speculative elements are good, the performances are solid
(even if Maeve Higgins’s performance as Rose kept niggling at me, knowing where else I’ve heard her name from,
and it features Will Forte singing a remix of Olé Olé Olé that’s all about
Satan. It’s a fun movie, although if I’m being honest, I’m not expecting to
remember it all that much in 2020.
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