FILM REVIEW: ​PYEWACKET

“An evil entity stalks a problem family in new Canadian indie horror film"

Your opinion on “Pyewacket”, directed by Canadian Adam MacDonald, way well depend upon what type of horror films you personally enjoy the most. If you’re a fan of the more graphic type, with loud shocks along the way, leading to a big ‘reveal’ then this intelligent low-budget flick may well not be for you. However, if you’re after a clever study of psychologically fractured family relationships, minimal special effects, with very slow escalation of tension then “Pyewacket” may be worth a look. You might not even be aware you’re watching a horror film for much of its ninety minutes. Each individual viewer must decide themselves whether that is a good or bad thing.

Leah (Nicole Munez) and her mother played by Laurie Holden (best known as ‘Andrea’ from ‘The Walking Dead’) are struggling to cope with the death of Leah’s father the previous year. The mother abruptly decides to relocate to a nearby town, thinking that a change of scenery will be the best thing for both to rebuild their lives. Leah, of course, disagrees and after the big move her mother continues to drive her a lengthy distance to her old high school. This was a plot hole; what was the point of moving houses to a location which ultimately meant spending two hours of daily car travel time with your sulky daughter? Leah is majorly pissed off with the relocation, feeling disconnected from her friends, and who can blame her?

Leah also has an interest in the occult which has developed since her father passed away, this is vaguely explored through her attending an occult author book signing with her grungy heavy/black metal friends who are into the same sort of thing. The dynamics with the three friends worked very well, and I felt it could have had a bigger part of the story, instead most of the action revolves around the antagonistic relationship between Leah and her mother. The acting is terrific throughout, but we needed more plot than repeated spats between mother and daughter in their isolated house and Leah regularly flouncing off to her room.

After a particularly bad fight the mother calls Leah a “loser” and this leads to her using her occult ‘expertise’ to summon an evil entity, the ‘Pyewacket’ of the title to supposedly kill her mother. All a bit of an over-reaction for an argument you might think, but Leah is disturbed, and the viewer is never quite sure whether she believes what she is doing is genuine. The ritual is freaky, in an earthy sort of way, and the camera really sucks the viewer in as she buries her artefacts, mixed with her own blood, in the forest earth. From then on things start to go bump in the night. Part of the problem with the film is that they go ‘bump in the night’ at a snail’s pace, probably too slowly for a lot of viewers. You may wonder whether the pay-off in the end is genuinely worth it? It does have intense final ten minutes, but I still felt slightly short-changed.

The family’s new house looks like it has been dropped straight into the middle of the ‘Blair Witch’ woods and we are treated to repeated shots of this forest from various angles and, which on one level adds atmosphere, but on a second provide a fair bit of padding and never realistically added much to the story. The film makes good use of sound effects, rather than music, and there are many scenes where there is limited dialogue, but ultimately it added just as much jarring noise as tension. This tested my patience somewhat, bearing in mind I saw this film on a big Dolby screen, I wonder how it will transfer to the small screen VOD where most folks will watch it.

The ‘Pyewacket’ entity really takes an age to do anything at all and as demons go it is the laziest I have ever witnessed in a horror film. For the first hour it makes a couple of bumps and leaves a single mud trail, Leah begins to get paranoid, and I did not think this was enough action for a horror flick, even a deeply psychological one. There was a great scene when Leah’s friend Janice has a sleepover, but again too much is implied, and the film would have benefited from more interaction with the teenage friends. There is nothing wrong with films being slow, but this film was neither a crowd-pleaser or a genuine art-house horror film.

“Pyewacket” was a perfectly acceptable little film, which I enjoyed watching, it’s not going to be everybody’s cup of tea, but if you like a slow-burning character study then give it a go. Personally, I like a scare in a film, and I do not think this film had one single jump, from myself or the large audience, which is not exactly a glowing endorsement for a horror film, whichever type it is.

Tony Jones