Nightmares Film Festival Movie # 3 - Midwest Premiere
Review:
This film was the last one to be shown on the opening night of Nightmares Film Festival. This falls into their midnight features, which aren't always the highest rated for me. They are the ones that I tend to look forward to the most since they usually do interesting and wild things. Now this one was difficult to find due to how short the title was. I also got to see this for its Midwest premiere.
Synopsis: a single father deceived into a treacherous career as the grim reaper, while his precocious daughter Collette (Kai Cech) grows increasingly suspicious of his whereabouts.
We start this by seeing someone in a hood sneaking around a hospital. They go into a room where a man is dying. The person is touched and then we see their soul leave the body. It heads for a door with glowing lights surrounding it. What we're seeing here is that there are grim reapers that come to guide the dead to the afterlife.
It then shifts 6 months back to show us what led to that. This is where we meet our father/daughter combination from the synopsis. Daniel (Lawrence Kao) is taking his little girl Collette and their dog to stay with a family member. This gets derailed when the cousin realizes they have the pet as he is allergic. Daniel must pivot and figure out what they'll do. Something to include here is that Daniel is a former dancer who hurt his leg. This forced him to retire. The mother is no longer in the picture and they're struggling. To regroup, they park on top of a garage to figure out their next plan.
This is where their lives change. Daniel finds a duffle bag on the ground after a nearby car leaves. He looks inside to find a box that tells him if he accepts what is inside, he needs to pay back with interest. There is a stack of money. What it is asking is for the new owner to take on the role as the grim reaper. This changes your outside appearance until you pay what is owed. The other issue is that anything you touch dies. He walks away and they sleep in their car.
Daniel gives in though and that takes us back to where we were for the cold open. This father is lying to his daughter as they hide out in a seedy place. He tells her that he has a skin condition and hides away in his room when he's home. He goes out when he's summoned to lead someone to the afterlife. Each time, he's given a token. He takes them to a character played by Brian Thompson, who pays him for it. Things get complicated when Child Protective Services learns of Collette in this room by herself. There are other complications just as Daniel is close to the amount he needs to free himself from service. There are consequences as well for not obeying the rules.
That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that I wasn't expecting the amount of heart this film brought. It isn't even listed on the Internet Movie Database as horror. I can see that case having now seen it. I'd still probably put it at the least as horror adjacent. There are elements, but overall, this is more about the relationship between this father and daughter, with him trying to redeem it.
Now that I've set that up, let me delve more into our two leads. It is just Daniel and Collette against the world. He's doing what he can to provide, by himself. She loves him, but she wants normalcy. I do like that both are evaluated in different ways. He is presented with this difficult choice. Do you give up your daughter to live in foster care while you are trying to make money or do you stick together, forcing you both to struggle? I couldn't imagine being away from my daughter. It bothers me to come to this film festival where I'm missing 4 nights with her. That drive has me getting up to spend time with her when I should rest. Daniel makes his horrible choice but being that this is a capitalist world we live in, money drives our decisions. It is needed to survive.
Then on this other side you have Collette who knows there's something up with her father. She isn't quite sure, but due to him lying to her, she draws her conclusions. I'll say here that both Kao and Cech fit these characters for what they needed. They feel like a father and daughter duo. With Collette, she gets taken in by the CPS worker. She is Macey (Shelli Boone). It is difficult to fault her, since her job is protecting the well-being of children. What is interesting here is something about her husband, Brad (Jonathan Medina). We quickly get the idea that he doesn't necessarily want children. The emotion and heart this brings to the story was good.
Let's then give over to the folklore here. I wouldn't go as far as to say that this is a folk horror film, but there are elements for sure. I love this idea that the grim reaper isn't an entity by choice. It is a great concept that someone is forced to do it by making a deal. What is interesting there is that you could have someone who loves taking the lives of others. Daniel is doing it reluctantly to help provide. There are rules to this role. The token man knows his part and he reminds Daniel by not giving him the token, this causes him to be punished. This comes in the form of a darker entity. There's another element that while you're the reaper, you look like a rotting corpse with a skull face. That complicates the life of the person if you have loved ones. There's also the idea that your touch kills. Something that can be an issue when setting up your own lore is that as a viewer, I don't need all the answers, but I need to believe that the filmmakers do. Benjamin Wong, who wrote and directed this, seems like he does which I appreciate.
That should be enough for the story so over to the acting. I've already said that Kao and Cech are good in their roles. I like this minor role as well with Michael Paul Chan. He is helping Daniel and they've formed a friendship. The only thing that confuses me, he sees Daniel without his coverings, or at least that's what seems. I needed to understand more there. Thompson was good in his small role. I thought that was him, but didn't know he was in this. Boone was good in her role as well as Medina in his. I also like Bri Banks, Blue Chapman, Stephanie Czajkowski and Paul Galazo. They all help to push our characters to where they ended up.
All that is left then is filmmaking. What impressed me here were the cinematography, framing and effects. I'm lumping these together because after Daniel takes his deal, he has a skull face. There are so many times that he's looking in a mirror or a reflection in glass that we see his face, but the image looking back is the skull. The care put into this was great. Other than that, I thought how this was shot was good. We get fuzzy focus for dreams or flashbacks that help fill in back-story. It also helps to understand characters better. The doors to the afterlife were a good touch. I also love this other figure that comes after Daniel. We also see ghosts that refuse to crossover. I like what they did there. I'd say that overall, this was well-made.
In conclusion, I'm glad that I saw this film as I might never have checked it out. What we're getting is an interesting concept where a father, who has little, is trying to make a better life for his daughter. His decision makes waves that change their lives forever. The heart of the story was great. Kao and Cech bring their characters to life. That is good. The rest of the cast push them to where they end up. I'll also say that this was well made from the cinematography, framing and look of the reaper. Not everyone will enjoy this and I can see people questioning if it is horror. There is enough there for me to include it. For that, I'd recommend it to horror and non-horror fans alike.
My Rating: 7 out of 10.
