A year after she ended the murderous rampage of real estate developer/killer Henry Waters (Justin Long), teen Winnie's (Jane Widdop) life is spiralling out of control.
Still dealing with the trauma of losing her best friend, she is isolated from her family. The final straw is when she discovers her boyfriend has been cheating on her.
After wishing she had never been born, Winnie finds herself transported to an alternate dimension where Waters' rampage never ended and he has taken over the town.
Written by Freaky's Michael Kennedy, It's a Wonderful Knife takes a similar approach to his first script, melding a slasher with the premise of a classic film.
Horror comedy is hard to pull off. Skew too far in either direction and you can lose the stakes and the laughs.
Tonally, It's a Wonderful Knife always feels just a shade off.
I was not the biggest fan of Freaky but that movie had a better sense of what kind of movie it was.
Some elements feel a little too big - Justin Long as the Trumpish local developer/serial killer among them - while other elements try to play it for some kind of emotional realism (Winnie's trauma from the opening bloodbath).
The film's strength is its blunt functionality - the kills are not that inspired but they are plentiful.
And while the character is not that interesting, the killer has a cool look.
The film's strength is its focus on the central characters of Winnie and Bernie (Jess McLeod), an outsider who is the one person who believes her story. The actors have solid chemistry, and the film's building toward a romantic resolution is nicely understated - it just feels like the movie around them needs a little more focus.
The film has a collection of good ideas, and Jane Widdop is fantastic as Winnie - it just never coalesces as an effective horror comedy.
No comments:
Post a Comment