A defiant teenage boy, struggling with his parent's imminent divorce, faces off with an old witch who has possessed the neighbour next door.
Cast: John-Paul Howard, Piper Curda, Zarah Mahler, Kevin Bigley, Gabriela Quezada Bloomgarden, Richard Ellis, Blane Crockarell, Jamison Jones, and Azie Tesfai
Release Date:
Genre: Horror
Rated R for sexual content and some nudity
Runtime: 1h 36min
Review:
The Wretched is the type of film that feels familiar right from the start with The sheer number is "witch next door" stories it's nearly impossible fit not to be instantly recognizable This entry is never terrifying but directors Brett & Drew Pierce do set up a handful of effective jump scares throughout. Outside of those moments, the film feels more like a love letter to those type of films with a decent sense of self awareness. Seasoned horror fans will likely find plenty of familiar beats throughout, but it’s all shot and performed effectively which makes it an easy watch. On the downside, the majority of the characters are about as one dimensional as they come. John-Paul Howard does decent work in the lead but he's decidedly bland which works against the film's insistence that his character is a bad boy. Piper Curda suffers from the same fate but they do what they can with neither being bad or boring enough to be distracting. Zarah Mahler does the heaviest lifting as the central vessel for the villainous witch. She’s creepy enough but you are kind of left wishing the movie had used her a bit more to make her character more formidable and memorable. The Wretched is an easily disposable horror film that gets high marks for solid direction and performances, it'll likely never end up on any top ten list, but it doesn't really aspire to.
C+
