Sun Choke

Jane (Sarah Hagan ) has been spending the last few weeks (maybe months or years?) of her life stuck in her spacious, but cold Hollywood hills home under the care of nurse Irma (Barbara Crampton). It seems that something happened in Janie's life to force her into seclusion, but Irma feels that, now, enough time has passed for Janie to at least try to go outside and mingle with the rest of the world.

On her first day out, Janie notices a young woman who she becomes enamored with and she begins stalking her and, soon, she's coming in late much to the chagrin of Irma who has to find a way to keep her in line. In typical horror film fashion, things don't go as expected and a few people have to die.

Despite the gorgeous visuals and excellent performances, Sun Choke is a confounding and confusing experience from start to finish. At first, one thinks that perhaps the filmmakers are withholding important information from us to build towards some major revelation or twist at the end, but once the end credits come up, we're just as confused as we were when we first started the film.

Why is Janie cooped up in the house? What happened to her mother? Where's her father? Because we don't know a thing about Janie or her circumstances, it makes it nearly impossible to root for her and she becomes a cardboard cutout. What could have been an interesting story about two very different women becomes an empty spectacle for extreme violence with no answers.

Sun Choke almost feels as if the filmmakers secured a great location and cast and just made it up as they went along.

Sun Choke needs some time it is a slow burn . This film works as a character study of in large part because of how committed actress Sarah Hagan is to playing 'Janie's' derangement. It is never really made clear why 'Janie' is a troubled soul suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal violent social behavior. 'Sun Choke' has excellent acting from all characters. The film all things add up to the creation of one evocative, trippy film that is sure to run chills down your spine. 'Sun Choke' offers a unique experience that'll leave you surprised and intrigued. Make note of the 105:39 minute mark. The film really gets its (freak) on

This film cracks the puzzle of making a dreamy, surreal and non-chronological narrative engaging. In this regard it uses similar devices as Mulholland Drive and Repulsion - yet it is far from a simple clone. Most importantly it has convincing portrayals of the three significant protagonists (great acting by all 3) and a winning combination of setting and soundtrack. At a deeper level, it successfully conveys the twisted but coherent logic employed by the lead as she struggles to attain a sense of security. The audience is encouraged not to be sympathetic but cognisant of the thinking which leads Janie down her narrative path.

1/10.

It's slow, boring, totally vague to the very end and I don't see the point of this film at all.

I had to "steal" this summary line from that one other review on IMDb (at this time), because it hits the nail on the head. Actually the review is very thorough overall, but this tag alone should be an indication if the movie itself is something you want to watch. Even without that tag line I went to watch it, not knowing anything except the title of the movie itself of course.

And while it's slow moving/brewing, which might not be most people cup of tea, I have to say that it fits the movie and the story. There is incidental nudity and there is weirdness abound too. Characters behavior may not be easily explained under "normal" circumstances, but the movie is not describing normal at all. This gets clear pretty early on. Does it still sound like something you want to watch? It's not easy let me tell you that. Especially when our main character gets "schooled".

There are a couple of themes here, rebellion, growing up, exploring and more and all packed in a psycho horror setting that will either feel "delightful" or nauseating, depending on your viewing habits. It's just a movie, so you'll either like the art created or loathe it