Look Away (2018)

LOOK AWAY is a psychological thriller that tells the story of Maria, an alienated high-school student whose life is turned upside down when she switches places with her sinister mirror image.

Review

Look Away is a horror thriller, written and directed by Assaf Bernstein (The Debt), in which a high school student's life is wrecked by spoilers in the IMDB synopsis for the film. Yeah. The said synopsis, above, pretty much spoils the third act. Anyway, um, this review has some spoilers?

Bernstein does a good job in creating a horror movie that is pretty unique, and one that will have  you guessing - unless you've read the synopsis - and so gives us an intriguing, somewhat different, effective indie film. It treads some old ground, but does so in a new way. Very much in the vein of the rebirth of a twin - and far better done than some - Look Away has the benefit of a good cast, and a decent screenplay.

Leading the cast is India Eisley (Clinical), and she's good. She carries off the teen role even though she was in her mid twenties during filming, better than a good number of castings made today - but more importantly, she carries the film well enough - something that a lot of indie films fail at when casting more inexperienced actors in the lead. Which is good as she had to go toe to toe with Jason Isaacs (The Harry Potter Franchise). Isaacs is a phenomenal actor, although between this and A Cure for Wellness, his characters seem to be constantly taking a dark turn with his daughter figures. Creepy.

And speaking of creepy, the film is just that. It is pretty light on gore, and relies heavily on the tension ramping constantly throughout the film until it all spews out in the climax. It's well done, and has a baseline of dread running throughout. Between that and the fact that the film is interesting, makes it a solid Friday night horror.

Good stuff.