Genre: Horror
Director: Adam Wingard
Plot: A serial killer escapes from prison and hunts for his ex-girlfriend, who is trying to rebuild her life.
The gist: I understand the need for indie filmmakers to come up with something different in style and mood to set themselves apart from everyone else, thus justifying the different methods they use, from camerawork to writing and scene setups and so forth.
That being said, A Horrible Way To Die simply did not get it right. If alternately disorienting and boring the audience is an indie method of doing things, I'd rather watch something more straightforward with the time I would have saved from seeing all that.
This film basically focuses on two people, Garrick the killer and Sarah, his ex-girlfriend. Garrick has just escaped from prison and is on the move towards her, just as she's trying to get her life back together with the help of a guy she meets at AA meetings. The film alternates between the two characters plus some flashback sequences before he was caught, when they were still together.
While I can't argue with the fact that Adam Wingard went to great lengths to establish his leads and is decent enough at that, his pacing is way off and there is zero excitement or thrills, even when he hits the big twist at the end.
The good: The twist was actually good because I didn't expect it, but it gets followed up by another (I'll mention this in a bit). Acting is decent at least.
The bad: The second twist made zero sense to me, it simply did not add up. Camerawork was awful, supposedly to create a dark mood but only ended up making me dizzy. Pace was snail level slow.
Verdict: Even indie filmmakers need to make an effort to bring the right kind of reaction to the audience based on the genre they're going for. This one failed in so many ways. Avoid. (2/5)
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