A young woman receives a box from a strange visitor, and her night turns into a living hell.
Flawed, incoherent, and forgettable. A broken heroine, a mysterious stranger, and an hourglass that marks the countdown… What is it? Who’s “we”? How do they do it? More importantly, why do they do it? And, ultimately, what will eventually happen?
The premise is solid. The paranormal blends with personal insanity/paranoia, and if Polly (Dakota Fanning) felt broken and alone before, the Earth will seem an entirely empty place after that. The things we hate, love, and need, and the “boxes” we put them in, can serve as a metaphor for the way we structure our thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and, to a large extent, the way we lie to ourselves about them. But deep down we know… our unconscious truly knows. A place that knows about us more than we possibly could. Well, what better way to deal with something we can’t comprehend or are scared to face than to see it through the lens of the paranormal?
Vicious is that case, but as it is Hollywood’s child, it cannot — and does not — avoid extreme hyperbole to the point that it just becomes nonsensical. Unfortunately, while that was obvious from the trailer, the film corroborated it. Dakota Fanning is great for the role, and she has been amazing ever since she was a child. She never fails to impress, as she is a beautiful person, a woman, and an actress.
The same cannot be said for the film, though. Writer/director Bryan Bertino, the man behind one of my favourite horrors – The Strangers (2008) – made an incoherent and disjointed film with some suspenseful moments that are severely overshadowed. I want to stop here because there is almost nothing positive to say except for the honest intentions behind it. It is the side of Hollywood that takes no risks and relies on the formulaic. Shame.
Takeaway? We cannot unload our problems on others, hoping that they will go away. We just can’t.
Thanks for reading!
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