31 Days of Halloween 2018: Pyewacket

2017, Adam MacDonald (mainly a TV actor) -- download

I have a feeling that this year is going to be mostly just-OK movies, a few Stinkers but even fewer Good. Every year we do it -- we see the best of the year's horror offering before the month even starts. Its inevitable, as Good Movies need to be watched no matter what genre they are. And these days, Good Movie translates as something easily digested and in my wheelhouse. I just don't have the mental energy for properly Good Movies, i.e. dramas and impactful stuff.

But no, that doesn't mean we have already seen Anabelle -- I doubt that sequel will be in our lists for years to come, maybe just as some completist drive. But A Quiet Place was already seen and... was there anything else really critically acclaimed this year? Hmmmm...

Anywayz, this was OK, on the edge of Good.

Leah and her mom are dealing with the death of father & husband. Leah's your typical metal highschooler, dressed in black and a bit too interested in books on the occult. Mom hates it, Leah's friends and the bottle of wine a night is not helping her coping skills nor her relationship with her daughter. Her last resort is to sell the house full of memories and movie Leah to the wooded countryside just out of town. Leah can still attend school but it involves long drives back and forth. Leah's not happy but really is just your typical pouty, combative teen.

If the movie did anything REALLY well it was portraying this relationship. They don't really get along but they definitely don't hate each other. Until things come to a head one night and mom screams some really hateful things, that she instantly regrets. But too late, Leah has run off into the woods with her book of spells and conjuring items. Yep, she casts a spell to summon a real demon to kill her mom. You can almost hear her mind ticking, as she doesn't quite believe what she is doing but it works as an outlet for the anger boiling up from inside. And a real demon won't appear, anyway, right?

Her mom recovers and is desperate to make it up to Leah. It doesn't help that Leah cut herself to cement the ritual and, well, mom sees that as Leah hurting herself in response. They try to repair the relationship, but then things start going bump in the night. Pyewacket the demon (not Kim Novak's cat) has come and he has come for Leah's mom.

The paranoia, the desperation, the anguish at what she has done -- this is well portrayed. Too bad the inevitable ending was not so telegraphed. While Marmy and I are quite adept at predicting how typical plotlines go, we like it when we are surprised, even a little. But demon summoning always has a cost, and they are predictable little buggers. I was hoping for at least something to raise this movie out of the depths of mundanity, just a little bit more on top of the solid performances.