Pyewacket *** / *****
Directed by: Adam MacDonald.
Written by: Adam MacDonald.
Starring: Nicole Muñoz (Leah), Laurie Holden (Mrs. Reyes), Chloe Rose (Janice), Eric Osborne (Aaron), Romeo Carere (Rob), James McGowan (Rowan Dove), Bianca Melchior (Pyewacket), Missy Peregrym (voice), Neil Whitely (Detective).
It was just last week when I reviewed Paco Plaza’s Veronica, about a teenage girl, who holds a séance to communicate with her dead father, and gets more than she bargained for. I didn’t think much of that film that was a slow burn, until a fairly satisfying finale – but ultimately indulged in every cliché imaginable through its runtime. Now comes Pyewacket, a film about a teenage girl, who performs a blood incantation, to get even with her mother who she is upset with following the death of her father, and gets more than she bargained for. The two films are similar in some ways – but while I don’t necessarily think Pyewacket is overly original either – it is a horror film that worked for me, slowly getting under your skin, and building to a truly frightening climax. The two films are perhaps a study in how horror, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. The film stars Nicole Muñoz as Leah – a teenager girl, who has started hanging out with the “goth” crowd following the death of her father. Their interest in the occult is somewhat comforting to her – interest in that implies there is an afterlife, so it provides some of the same comfort as religion does, but is “cooler”. Her mother, (Laurie Holden) isn’t doing well however – she cannot seem to get over the death of her husband, or reminders of him, so instead she decides to move an hour away from everything Leah knows, to a remote house in the middle of the woods (seems logical). One day in the car during an argument, her mother says something that infuriates Leah – so that night, she heads to the woods to call upon a spirit – Pyewacket – to punish her mother. It’s something – much like that séance in Veronica – which a grieving, angry teenager may well do, without meaning it. She almost immediately regrets it – but it’s too late, as the spirit makes their presence felt almost immediately.
Pyewacket is a slow burn of a horror movie – first getting us to care about Leah, and even her mother and her friends, and then working to scare us. I liked how the film shows the teenagers interest in the occult, and how confident they are all in how cool it – right up until they actually confront it in real life – Leah’s friends Janice (Chloe Rose) comes up to the house to try and observe what is actually happening, because she thinks it’s great – but the next morning, she’s hiding in the car, freaked out and wanting to go home.
Pyewacket makes great use of its setting to help deliver the scares – from the dark forest that surrounds there new home, to the attic that Leah repeatedly has to go to – either to try and figure out what that strange noise is, or to try and get away from it. The film is nicely subtle in the scares too – it doesn’t lead the audience as much with music or jump scares, but like the slow burn of the film itself, the scares are similarly subtle at first, and then mount as the film continues.
I would not argue with someone who felt the opposite of me – that Veronica was incredibly scary, and Pyewacket was too slow. Different strokes for different folks I guess. But to me, I was mainly bored by Veronica – a film that didn’t scare me, and felt like it was going through the motions. I was scared though by Pyewacket – enough that I really should go back and catch up with Adam Macdonald’s other horror film – Backcountry. He clearly has horror movie chops – and while Pyewacket isn’t overly original, it delivers.
