I went into this movie for two reasons. The first was Amber Heard and the second was my familiarity with another one of Johnson's movies, Crushed (2009). I stumbled on Crushed more than a decade ago and I loved it more than I thought I would. In fact, I loved it to the extent that I recently re-watched it and still found that my love for it was not lost. So, when I went into this one, I had relatively high expectations - perhaps higher than most people's. And it's perhaps because of this that I found it to be quite a disappointment.
I mean, even while Crushed is not a masterpiece by any means and does have several issues that one has to gloss over if they're to enjoy it, its number and extent of problems do not by any means come close to those in this movie. Among the myriad of problems - mainly attributable to Johnshon as the director and writer - facing this movie are its poor editing, poor sound quality, sketchy dialogues, continuity problems, poor lighting, and poor casting choices (with the exceptions of Amber Heard, Eryn Brooke, and Marta Cross). One may, nevertheless, chalk these problems up to Johnson's having had less experience as a director at that time. Indeed, Crushed reflects a more mature and polished work from him suggestive of his having learned a bit from his past mistakes. Contrarily, some may attribute Crushed's appeal entirely to Natalie Dickinson's magnificent performance as Tara and maintain that Johnson's poor direction is simply just un-salvageable. Whatever the case, what I found to be impressive in both Crushed and this movie were the horror makeup and special effects which, to me, went above the poor quality of such effects that is the usual in B-rated horror flicks.
That said, even with the poor direction of the movie, several of its aspects (besides special effects) are praiseworthy. The first is Amber Heard's performance. She plays Shay, the best friend to the protagonist Tuesday (Amanda Phillips). Shay is a concerned and cautious friend that tries to act as the "voice of reason" for Tuesday by repeatedly begging her, without success, to avoid poor choices and the path towards horror that she's intent on taking. While Shay's presence is too minimal in her first appearance during the movie to make much of Heard's performance of her, her later appearances make clear the outstanding nature of this performance of her by Heard. For instance, in the scene where Tuesday decides to go to Sunset Park (the setting for the final showdown) to search for the creator of the drug (ACE) that's at the center of the movie's plot, Heard succeeds - and it shows despite the extremely poor editing in that scene - to be convincing in her concerns and and pleas to Tuesday not to go. This contrasts sharply with. Amanda Phillip's shallow performance in that scene.
Later on, Heard's authentic and emotional portrayal of Shay becomes increasingly apparent and captivating and she also succeeds in pulling off a "Scream Queen" scene in a manner un-comparable to the other actresses in the movie. But perhaps no other scene is as clear in evidencing Heard's distinction from nearly all of the other cast members than is the scene in which Shay is killed. In that scene - presumably under the influence of ACE - Shay tries to kiss and subsequently bite Tuesday but Tuesday gets spooked and defends herself by killing her. Indeed, in what may have been an early filmic hint to Heard's bisexuality, she impressively manages to pull in the viewer into believing that her comforting hug, strokes, and forehead kisses of Tuesday in this scene represent a romantic connection that is only then being revealed, before Tuesday's reaction promptly and shockingly disabuses the viewer of this notion. Thus, it is only through Heard's development of Shay's connection to Tuesday throughout the movie before this scene and her performance in the scene that the act of Tuesday killing Shay comes off as especially horrific and shocking to the viewer.
To summarize my views of Heard's performance in the movie, I'd say that if Johnson's casting choices were better, he should have reversed the roles of Heard and Phillips in the movie. The movie would have fared much better with Heard's talent representing Turesday than it did with Phillips' (no offense to Phillips). Anyone that disagrees with me here is free to look at the career trajectories of all the other performers in the movie in the years following it as compared to Heard's and they'll note that none of theirs compares to the upward trajectory that Heard's career took. The only other performers that I found to have performed at Heard's level were Marta Cross (as Monica) and Eryn Brooke (as Ashley) and, again, it's no surprise that at least Marta's career trajectory has been impressive as compared to the rest's.
Besides Amber Heard's performance, the other plus for the movie is its main message: avoid drugs, especially unknown ones. Johnson makes this message clear in the opening lines to the movie and in several dialogues in it such that it would be self-defeating for anyone to try to argue that it's absent. At a time when the USA was (and still is) plagued with a drug culture that essentially had been a public health problem for decades, I welcome such movies as this one for not just not having promoted it, but also having criticized and discouraged it.
I also have to commend the gender representation in this movie even though it does have its share of sexist stereotypes that go with Johnson's apparent attempts at catering to male (femme fatales) fantasies and sexual desires. For all the faults that one may level against Johnson's movies nevertheless, one that I think it would be unfair to level against most of them would be poor gender representation because women take leading roles, as well sizable numbers in the overall cast, in most of these movies.
In conclusion, while this movie fails in many filmic respects, its inclusion of Amber Heard, it communication of a positive health and social message, its above average special effects, and its commendable gender representation lead me to give award it a rating of 7 instead of one of a 4.
I mean, even while Crushed is not a masterpiece by any means and does have several issues that one has to gloss over if they're to enjoy it, its number and extent of problems do not by any means come close to those in this movie. Among the myriad of problems - mainly attributable to Johnshon as the director and writer - facing this movie are its poor editing, poor sound quality, sketchy dialogues, continuity problems, poor lighting, and poor casting choices (with the exceptions of Amber Heard, Eryn Brooke, and Marta Cross). One may, nevertheless, chalk these problems up to Johnson's having had less experience as a director at that time. Indeed, Crushed reflects a more mature and polished work from him suggestive of his having learned a bit from his past mistakes. Contrarily, some may attribute Crushed's appeal entirely to Natalie Dickinson's magnificent performance as Tara and maintain that Johnson's poor direction is simply just un-salvageable. Whatever the case, what I found to be impressive in both Crushed and this movie were the horror makeup and special effects which, to me, went above the poor quality of such effects that is the usual in B-rated horror flicks.
That said, even with the poor direction of the movie, several of its aspects (besides special effects) are praiseworthy. The first is Amber Heard's performance. She plays Shay, the best friend to the protagonist Tuesday (Amanda Phillips). Shay is a concerned and cautious friend that tries to act as the "voice of reason" for Tuesday by repeatedly begging her, without success, to avoid poor choices and the path towards horror that she's intent on taking. While Shay's presence is too minimal in her first appearance during the movie to make much of Heard's performance of her, her later appearances make clear the outstanding nature of this performance of her by Heard. For instance, in the scene where Tuesday decides to go to Sunset Park (the setting for the final showdown) to search for the creator of the drug (ACE) that's at the center of the movie's plot, Heard succeeds - and it shows despite the extremely poor editing in that scene - to be convincing in her concerns and and pleas to Tuesday not to go. This contrasts sharply with. Amanda Phillip's shallow performance in that scene.
Later on, Heard's authentic and emotional portrayal of Shay becomes increasingly apparent and captivating and she also succeeds in pulling off a "Scream Queen" scene in a manner un-comparable to the other actresses in the movie. But perhaps no other scene is as clear in evidencing Heard's distinction from nearly all of the other cast members than is the scene in which Shay is killed. In that scene - presumably under the influence of ACE - Shay tries to kiss and subsequently bite Tuesday but Tuesday gets spooked and defends herself by killing her. Indeed, in what may have been an early filmic hint to Heard's bisexuality, she impressively manages to pull in the viewer into believing that her comforting hug, strokes, and forehead kisses of Tuesday in this scene represent a romantic connection that is only then being revealed, before Tuesday's reaction promptly and shockingly disabuses the viewer of this notion. Thus, it is only through Heard's development of Shay's connection to Tuesday throughout the movie before this scene and her performance in the scene that the act of Tuesday killing Shay comes off as especially horrific and shocking to the viewer.
To summarize my views of Heard's performance in the movie, I'd say that if Johnson's casting choices were better, he should have reversed the roles of Heard and Phillips in the movie. The movie would have fared much better with Heard's talent representing Turesday than it did with Phillips' (no offense to Phillips). Anyone that disagrees with me here is free to look at the career trajectories of all the other performers in the movie in the years following it as compared to Heard's and they'll note that none of theirs compares to the upward trajectory that Heard's career took. The only other performers that I found to have performed at Heard's level were Marta Cross (as Monica) and Eryn Brooke (as Ashley) and, again, it's no surprise that at least Marta's career trajectory has been impressive as compared to the rest's.
Besides Amber Heard's performance, the other plus for the movie is its main message: avoid drugs, especially unknown ones. Johnson makes this message clear in the opening lines to the movie and in several dialogues in it such that it would be self-defeating for anyone to try to argue that it's absent. At a time when the USA was (and still is) plagued with a drug culture that essentially had been a public health problem for decades, I welcome such movies as this one for not just not having promoted it, but also having criticized and discouraged it.
I also have to commend the gender representation in this movie even though it does have its share of sexist stereotypes that go with Johnson's apparent attempts at catering to male (femme fatales) fantasies and sexual desires. For all the faults that one may level against Johnson's movies nevertheless, one that I think it would be unfair to level against most of them would be poor gender representation because women take leading roles, as well sizable numbers in the overall cast, in most of these movies.
In conclusion, while this movie fails in many filmic respects, its inclusion of Amber Heard, it communication of a positive health and social message, its above average special effects, and its commendable gender representation lead me to give award it a rating of 7 instead of one of a 4.