Wounds (2019)

Disturbing and mysterious things begin to happen to a bartender in New Orleans after he picks up a phone left behind at his bar.

Review

Director Babak Anvari (Under the Shadow) who also did the screenplay adaptation from the source material, does relatively good work with strange, strange material here. The direction of the movie is solid - if not pretty good in places, but the film itself does Anvari no favors.

Based on a book by Nathan Ballingrud, Wounds is a fairly solid film. Well, that is, the start of a film. It slow burns ridiculously and then, just as something really interesting is about to happen the film stops. It doesn't end. It stops. Having done some research there is some method in the madness (if you've seen the film, excuse the pun), but without some understanding of the materials discussed within the film (somewhat vaguely) and access to Google, it's unlikely the casual viewer will understand either the film as a whole, or the end of it. But is it any good? Sadly (I don't say that lightly), yes. I was invested and waiting for a third act to at least try to explain the events of the film. Then the stop occurs and it's exceedingly frustrating. It's a slow buildup, but almost defines the word creepy...it was rolling towards outstanding stuff. Damn.

Star Armie Hammer (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) does a good job, and the supporting cast includes Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2), Karl Glusman (The Neon Demon), and Dakota Johnson (Suspiria) and they are all good. The FX are good. It is suspenseful.

It just fails at the crucial moment.

For those who know what I mean, the film feels like a movie version of a creepypasta - an internet horror story played as if factual. Like Slenderman (Of which I am yet to see the film). Ack. This should have been so much more.