Nothing particularly original, just a straight up Viltrumite treatment of how a superhuman alien would really turn out. Some of the scenes are lifted straight from Miracleman/Marvelman, but then what isn't these days?
The first act suffers from a prematurely ominous score and jump scares over what is initially perfectly normal adolescent behaviour to the extent that I'm not sure if it counts as a parody.
And even at 90 minutes, the 2nd act drags out. When it turns into a super-slasher film, the writers rapidly run out of ideas about how to escalate it gradually. Once Johnny Bates - I mean, Brandon Breyer - loses his inhibitions, it's just not credible to dial it back down again.
Still, it's solidly acted all round, has a few neat Easter eggs, uses its very modest budget cleverly, and commits to its ending through an unexpected aversion of Chekhov's Kryptonite. It just lands in an unfortunate place between too big to be cult, and too small to be epic.
The first act suffers from a prematurely ominous score and jump scares over what is initially perfectly normal adolescent behaviour to the extent that I'm not sure if it counts as a parody.
And even at 90 minutes, the 2nd act drags out. When it turns into a super-slasher film, the writers rapidly run out of ideas about how to escalate it gradually. Once Johnny Bates - I mean, Brandon Breyer - loses his inhibitions, it's just not credible to dial it back down again.
Still, it's solidly acted all round, has a few neat Easter eggs, uses its very modest budget cleverly, and commits to its ending through an unexpected aversion of Chekhov's Kryptonite. It just lands in an unfortunate place between too big to be cult, and too small to be epic.