Murphy Came A-Knocking

On behalf of Selina and myself, I would like to express our apologies that there will not be a regular post today.

Murphy's Law sometimes gains the upper hand, and has done so again.

Thank you for your patience. We'll be returning to our Monday & Thursday posts next week!

Nails (2017) Through the Eyes of Cat

By Cat

Number Rolled: N/A

Movie Name/Year: Nails (2017)

Tagline: From the Executive Producer of Assault on Precinct 13

Genre: Horror

Length: 85 minutes

Rating: TV-MA

Production Company: Fantastic Films

Producers: Tom Abrams, John Brady, Jan Doense, Joseph Kaufman, Brendan McCarthy, John McDonnell, Herman Slagter

Director: Dennis Bartok

Writers: Tom Abrams, Dennis Bartok

Actors: Shauna Macdonald, Ross Noble, Richard Foster-King, Steve Wall, Charlotte Bradley, Leah McNamara, Dennis Bartok, Robert O'Mahoney

Stunts:  Joe Condren, Tony Condren, Rachel Walker, Keith Ward

Blurb from Netflix: Recently paralyzed in a devastating car accident, Dana begins to suspect a dark and sinister force may be lurking within her hospital room.

This was one seriously creepy movie.

We all seem to have this primordial unease when it comes to ‘the dark.’ Some never really grow out of the ‘fear of the dark’ that tends to plague most of us at children. It only bothers me occasionally. I can generally sleep without a night light, I promise. Though, after watching this movie, I was seriously creeped out trying to go to the bathroom through my dark house.

For the most part, this film was really on point. The fear of being trapped aware in one’s own body without the ability to communicate is something that climbs on my list of disturbing things by the day. This hits especially close to home, considering my medical condition could feasibly render me paralyzed, should it change course for the worse. The feeling of being helpless to escape something horrible is something that haunts me and lingers long after the final credits on things like this.

I have to give the movie credit where it’s due – they did a fairly good job with suspense and ominous tone, as well as twisting up a few of your typical tropes of the genre. In other places, they went right along with recipe. Prepare yourself for jump scares, because they are sprinkled everywhere here.

Shauna Macdonald (The Descent, Moon Dogs, Star Wars: The Last Jedi) was phenomenal and seriously badass in her role as Dana, here. Her part was both highly physical and emotional while by necessity fairly non-verbal. I was buying every bit of her performance… well, that is, up until the very end. That’s another thing entirely. I’ll get to that. I did appreciate the care and attention to detail that the production team took in showing the passage of time and actual healing progression for her character. The makeup team in the special effects department did a bang-up job… no pun intended.

So thus far my take on this film has been rather positive – you might wonder why my rating was so low.

The ending.

Put simply, they took every good bit of buildup and effects work – all that tension and dread – and they threw it out the damn window. It’s like they were serving a 5-star meal and then on the very last course gave you congealed leftovers and a tic-tac.

Why? The effects throughout the film where the supernatural events were involved actually were fairly good. The villainous titular entity was significantly eerie, disturbing even; and I am not sure that I won’t have nightmares when I finally go to sleep. Then at the climax of everything – they cheaped out and totally lost my suspension of disbelief. Did they run out of funding at the last second? I have no clue why they made the decision they did – but it killed the whole thing for me. I saw that scene and my brain just went “NOPE.” It’s sad, really.

I’m not sure if this is a movie I can recommend in good conscience for that reason – I don’t want to set anyone else up to have that monumental let-down. So all I can say is watch at your own risk. 

Languages

Speech Available: English

Subtitles Available: English [CC]

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 50%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 19%

Metascore – None

Metacritic User Score – None

IMDB Score – 4.6/10

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 2.5/5

Trust the Dice Parental Advisory Rating: R

Movie Trailer: