Day 6 of #31daysofhorror reviews
Today’s review is brought to you by the letter:
The Story: A family is terrorized by their eight year old’s imaginary friend.
What I liked: This has the makings of something great. There’s an idea here just original enough that it holds your attention. There are so many elements of foreshadowing that a keen viewer will be rewarded for paying attention. There’s some good camerawork and imagery thrown in there as well. When done creatively, it creates some good scares that even got me.
Exhibit 1: When Beth (Keegan Connor Tracy) takes her boy to visit a friend on a play date, all seemed well until it wasn’t. I definitely woke up and paid more attention after that.
What I didn’t like: I can see why there’s a divide between the audience and critics. When Z isn’t burning bright with its acting and originality, it’s flickering and waving all over the place. What started out as a ghost story morphed into a different movie towards the end, and suddenly it was a metaphor about abusive and toxic relationships. Z strikes me as a story about childhood trauma, but the third act took me for a loop and just couldn’t stick the landing it was building up too.
I also was a bit disappointed with the use (or misuse) of the Dad and the psychiatrist. They were on the whole unsupportive to Beth and therefore unrealistic to me, one-note, or straight up unlikeable.
Verdict: Compared to films where I hated myself for watching it ’til the end, Z isn’t that bad. It’s definitely worth watching this season. Z is available for rent on most streaming platforms.