Naty's Spooky Corner

The Wretched

★★★★★

Sunday, April 4, 2021, 11:11 AM

The Wretched

This 2020 film follows a well-minded teenage boy, Ben Shaw, struggling to accept his parents divorce. After a stupidly rash decision to sneak into his neighbors home and steal medication, the now broken-armed Ben is sent to spend his summer with his newly single dad when he begins to notice something strange is happening in his new neighbors home. The new-comers are a typically loud, aloof family, until suddenly, their children begin to disappear. Shocked by the change and new normalcy on display, Ben asks the husband, Ty, where his son is, only to be met by the defiant anwer “I don’t have a son”. Ben quickly realizes that something horrific has happened to the once happy family and quickly becomes obsessed with figuring out what actually happened.

During that neighborly visit, Ben also notices a strange symbol has been carved into the entrance of their front porch. Soon he finds information on the internet describing a witch, better known as a “wretch” or the “dark mother”, that possesses women and gains power by “feeding on the forgotten”. Affirmed with the power of the internet by his side, Ben sneaks into the neighbor's basement, which has only been recently teeming with activity, and discovers what can only be described as an ancient offering, lulling people to forget everything about their younger loved ones. It’s now up to Ben and his friendly coworker to take down the evil wretch and save the forgotten children, that is of course, if they remember how to.

Spooky Spoiler Time:

Alright Pierce Brothers, congratulations on making such an incredible indie horror film. I highly applaud your impeccable use of visuals, story pacing, and for scaring me half to death. For anyone who has had a chance to be terrorized by this movie, I would love to know your perspective on, what I consider, the two main plot twists within the narrative. Of course, I’m going to give the cliched advice to “watch carefully, everything is there for a reason”. But damn, was I absolutely shocked when it was finally revealed that Ben had a younger brother the entire time. In all honesty, the combination of A) him forgetting his younger brother and B) Sara having been taken over by the wretch creature had me gasping at such a well built reveal within the story.

There were also several moments that I had audibly yelled to the screen - since the characters could absolutely hear me - “Stop being a hero, and ask for help”. It seemed as though the film was relying too heavily on the typical “brooding teenage boy’ trope to make his character seem personable. Yes, Ben displayed very admirable traits like his endless courage and ingenuity to rescue his forgotten little brother and Lily. But it seemed as though luck played too much into his favor resulting in him just barely escaping from the wretch. Personally, I am sad that the site “Witchopedia” isn’t more mainstream since it clearly has all the answers for your spooky, unexplainable, and supernatural needs!

There were other boorish tropes that were frustratingly repeated, such as the neglectful father who doesn’t check on his baby, and of course, the questionably lovestruck teenage girl who will stop at no lengths to help the story’s obsessive male protagonist. Unfortunately these characters' sense of self and motivation fell flatter than a pile of cardboard.

And now for my favorite point of discussion - the ending. While I understand that the Ben Gang failed to properly kill the witch by not burning her tree, I find it hard to believe that the wretch would choose to take possession of a teenage girl. In Lore, she is commonly referred to as “The Dark Mother” and throughout the film we see her take control of the matriarch of a family to better prey on children and dispose of their unfortunate partners. Which is why I am struggling to understand what benefit she would have from possessing the underage body of someone who's main mode of transportation is her bicycle. While revenge might be a loosely tied driver, I can imagine that this thousand year old entity has better things to do than seek vengeance on a teenage boy who is only temporarily there.

Overall, I thought this movie was absolutely horrific, in the best way possible of course. The visuals and the underlying sense dread is so well placed throughout the entire film and complemented with a killer - haha, get it? - soundtrack. It was only a matter of time until I was spooked enough to bust out the nightlight. Or better yet, a whole bunch of salt.

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