I stumbled upon this kickstarter-funded movie and gave it the time thanks to a good start. It seems to mix comedy and horror, and sees a substitute teacher taking over a class where something is not quite right, in a school where the staff also seem to be up to something. As Mae Zalinski tries to just get through her day as a teacher, she gets drawn into a much darker world.
The idea is quite nice, and the film has a decent smile on its face throughout. It is never quite as funny as it needs to be, but at least is amusing. On the other side the horror doesn't quite work either; it is not quite creepy enough, and in the end the budget restrictions on the special effects do show. Working against it was the memory of the short film Fool's Day, which is not quite the same but has a horror set in a classroom and does it much better on all fronts. That said, The Sub does have much to be charmed by if you do not expect too much. It has solid production values, it has good pace, and the performances are pretty good from Jarman, Jenkins, and Stepanek; in particular I would happily watch more interactions between Jenkins and Jarman, and sort of wondered if the film would have been better if it let the confrontation of the end play out, giving our two heroines more dialogue in that space.
It has its limits then, and lacks a lot of polish and refinement, but The sub is still broadly enjoyable for what it does.
