The Gift (2015)
Rating- 15
Running Time- 1 hour 48 minutes
Directed by- Joel Edgerton
Written by- Joel Edgerton
The usual rule with horror movies is that if they come out
in the summer, albeit in this case - late on in the summer, they aren’t
expected to be that good hence them not being released in the prime horror
season i.e. the weeks surrounding and including Halloween. The Gift though is probably the best horror movie to come out in a
very long time and that’s because it doesn’t just rely on jump scares: it is a
genuinely brilliant psychological thriller. The horror is chiefly created
through what we assume, not what we see and that technique only works if the
film has an antagonist who is not only truly frightening but also an
emotionally complex character in their own right.
The Gift sees
successful, young couple Simon (Jason
Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall)
move to LA to make a fresh start following the traumatic loss of their unborn
baby. There they run into Gordo (Joel
Edgerton), a childhood acquaintance of Simon,
who is eager to become good friends with them despite their dismissive attitude
towards him. This develops into Gordo becoming
seemingly obsessed with Robyn, something
she doesn’t seem to mind but infuriates Simon
who tells Gordo to leave him and
his wife alone. This triggers a switch in Gordo
whose harmless fixation takes a sinister turn which leads to a dark secret
from Simon’s past being revealed.
The film relies on the three central characters to be fully
fleshed out and appear real for its effect to be properly realised. It does
this in a way that serves both the intensity of fear as well as the plot; the
characters’ believability naturally makes the film more scary but the fact that
we are set up with an instant idea of who we think these characters are only to
be continuously surprised as we learn more and more about them enhances the
dynamic of the film’s story. We are constantly doubting ourselves over who the
real villain of this movie is and, with each dose of perfectly placed
information, we are left with a completely different outlook on the film as a
whole and particularly the characters which keeps the film fresh but also has
us constantly switching allegiances and altering our opinions on everything we
have seen before. This results in us feeling that we still don’t really know
these characters, or the full extent of their story, even after the movie has
finished which seemed impossible after the film’s opening made us think that we
had the very same characters completely sussed. But, this feeling of ignorance
somehow leaves us more satisfied than we would have been if we were made aware
of everything there was to know; this is largely the reason the film is as good
as it is. All of this points to very good writing.
This is not the only way the quality of the writing is
showcased though. While the opening is establishing what will eventually be
proved to be false identities for the main characters it is also ingeniously planting
clues that we don’t realise are as important as they end up being at the end of
the film. Pretty much everything that makes the film’s end so chilling is given
to us almost subconsciously in the first fifteen minutes of the film so that
when we are watching the final revelation we are suddenly thinking back to all
of those supposed irrelevancies and putting them all together to make the horror
of the final scene ten times more disturbing than it already is.
My only major gripe with this fil is that is decides to
include two or three jump scare that, despite being superbly incorporated, weren’t
necessary and end up taking away from the psychological fear that was so brilliantly
conveyed just by resorting to the easiest way to make people scared. Don’t get
me wrong, jump scares when used well are fantastic ways to generate a strong,
visible response from the audience but there is a time and place for them and
this movie had the chance to prove that you can make a truly great horror movie
without them. It doesn’t stop the film from working in the way it does but it
doesn’t add anything that was really needed and I would have preferred to see the
film without them if only to show that horror can be scary without jump scares.
Overall, an incredibly chilling horror film that achieves
real psychological fear through a great script and excellent acting. It’s a
film that keeps you on your toes for its entirety and delivers an ending that
is as unpredictable as it is brilliant.
Final Rating. Four Stars. |
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