Review by Stuart Barr
Stars AJ Bowen, Amy Seimetz, Joe Swanberg, Brandon Carroll, Lane Hughes, Melissa Boatright, Steven Buehler, Jen Huemmer, Whitney Moore, Holly Voges
Written by Simon Barrett
Certification UK 18 | US R
Runtime 87 minutes
Directed by Adam Wingard
Sarah (Siemetz) is a recovering alcoholic with more than just substance abuse in her past. Amy is also trying to recover emotionally from a previous relationship that turned bad in the most dramatic way imaginable when her ex-boyfriend Garrick Turrell (Bowen) was revealed to be a serial killer of women. Amy is slowly trying to piece her life back together having moved to a new town, found a job and begun attending AA groups. It is at one of these groups that she meets Kevin (Swanberg) and begins a hesitant relationship.
Unbeknown to Sarah, Turrell has escaped from prison and embarks on a road trip in search of her. As an ineffectual police force tries to capture Turrell, he easily evades them, and leaves a trail of corpses in his wake. Gradually the killer draws ever closer to Sarah, and the tension mounts.
A Horrible Way To Die is a lower key film than its synopsis suggests. Clearly low budget, but artfully shot and with naturalistic performances, this is kitchen-sink horror. The characters are not exactly on the lowest rungs of the social ladder, but Sarah is not far away and is trying to pull herself back up after hitting the bottom. Scenes between Siemetz and Swanberg have an uncomfortable air of realism, especially an awkward dinner date in a restaurant that turns out to be half off-license leading to an excruciating scene of physical intimacy. Meanwhile the superficially quite charming and normal Turrell kidnaps and murders a series of unfortunate women in scenes that eschew exploitational thrills. In fact with its naturalism and focus on relationships A Horrible Way To Die has a lot in common with the US mumblecore movement.
The film is innovatively shot, images are often deliberately out-of-focus, or refracted through rain and glass. Even when focussing on the characters, part of the frame will be blurred, and scene transitions are often done by shifting out of focus and entering a new scene by coming into focus. This visual style has the effect of giving the film a woozy, distorted feel that fits characters who are either disconnected or hiding their true natures. This might sound like a distracting affectation but it never obscures the characters.
Unfortunately there is a rather large plot hole that niggled me almost the whole way through the film. I won’t reveal the issue as it is potentially a spoiler, but it is very distracting if it occurs to you. Ultimately the underlying thriller framework of the film’s story was rather less successful than the more dramatic, character-led elements.
A Horrible Way To Die is most definitely not the torture porn movie the title may suggest, it is more in the lineage of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Kilelr (although no where near as tough), and it clearly will not be to the taste of horror fans who like their gore amped up and in your face. However for fans you like the artier side of the genre, this is a rewarding watch.