Jamie Marks Is Dead

Queer and weird. I’m not jumping in joy, after the excellent The Ruins, the expectations were understandably higher, but this is far from a bad film, even if it doesn’t have much horror to speak of. The main relationship line is not at all ineffectual and could be the basis for a truly strong and sad film, but here it suffers because certain moments take the attention away from it and you simply stop believing in the behaviour of the characters (and I’m not speaking only about some moments between Jamie and Adam, but also between Adam and his mother, and Adam and Gracie). They should be portrayed a bit differently for the viewer to believe them. The film knows how to be atmospheric, nasty and creepy, or at least it tries (the first appearance of Jamie, the moments with Francis), and if it had spared us the most disturbing WTF moments (lying in the crime scene, the flying saucer, etc.), I would be fine with giving it a higher rating, but I’m left with the aftertaste of a squandered opportunity, but at the same time with the joy of an original film that’s not afraid to be different, even though it won’t please the average audience. (2014.08.31)