Almost Mercy (2015)
3/10
Feels like a 15 year old outcasts fan fiction of a High School massacre
30 August 2015
Warning: Spoilers
"Childhood friends grow up together as outcasts. A bridge is crossed and individually they both decide that the messed up town they grew up in needs to be purged"

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think this movie is horrible or anything but it did seem like it thought it was better than it actually was.

Emily and Jackson grow up together in what actually does seem to be a messed up couple of lives. Jackson is the victim of molestation, physical bullying and unclean living environments. Emily lives in a pretty well off family but with a mother who is in a constant state of self medication, a father who is never there and a cast of should be mentors saying that she is underachieving and worth less than others.

Trying to explain the story more than that seems like it would hurt myself and confuse everyone. So, let's go over some of the other character and why you should hate them.

Pastor Johnson is a pedophile who is taking money from the church.

The coach, at first seems like a cool dude until you realize he is a pedo also but targets high school girls instead of young boys.

The principal is also a pedo but for high school boys plus he covers up a rape.

Emily's dad is never there and drives his wife to feel she is inadequate.

Then there are all of the class mates.

You have urine boy, bullies, preps, jocks, popular girls, etc. Just every class of person that would make your inner nerd and outcast wish for them to get killed. And that's it! This movie is a glorified day dream of what bullied youth sometimes wish they could do when faced with bullies and troubled childhoods.

Going to get into spoilers here but, it seems like Jackson is going to be the one to try to take revenge on everyone by plotting out a school shooting. He flakes out but gets caught for conspiracy of a mass murder rampage. Before he did so, he told Emily that he hid weapons in the woods. At this point, Emily goes gets the weapons and tracks down like 15 people and kills them. No joke! Pastor, Principal, 4 Students, Coach, another Student, her dad, her former teacher, several cops.

It ends with her giving money extorted by the pastor to Jackson so he can just leave and live a normal life while she is in an institution.

Stuff I didn't like are mainly the things like how they're seemingly trying to glorify and justify killings and school shootings. I 100% understand that some of the stuff that happened to them was horrible such as the molestation and rape. This is a good example of what those types of incidents can cause mentally and what they can lead to but the way the characters were portrayed and the happy go lucky feel the movie had was a turn off.

What this movie boils down to is a revenge plot but when the revenge occurs, it feels out of place. Emily's character who has been the one down to earth the whole movie begins making light of what she is doing. Taking selfies with the people she kills and just outrageous behavior. If the tone was more serious during this part, it would've made for a possibly compelling revenge aspect but they went for a more campy dark comedy feel that didn't execute well at all.

Should you watch it? Sure. It gives you an insight into some of the lives people have to live. It's not the worst two hours you can spend watching a movie. Just don't look for something too challenging. Better film making and a more serious tone near the end would have made for a decent film.
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