Sometimes all that one needs is a horribly dumb horror film to pass the time when you do not have the energy to watch anything else. Very rarely, however, do you find a film of this variety that is so nonsensical and meaningless that it is hard to even find a skosh of entertainment value. Still is one of these films, as it is one found on Hulu containing a decently-recognizable star by a nearly unknown director, yet remains one of the most forgettable horror stories I have ever seen. This film had so much potential and due to its interesting ideas, it could have been a much stronger and more compelling story. Takashi Doscher's writing and direction bogged this movie down by miles and while the leads provided some decent performances working with what they could, it was not nearly enough to overcome the confusing and ridiculous pacing choices. Horror films that strive to be dumb-fun are typically known for their jump-scares and predictable plot choices, but at least they make sense - this film could not even accomplish that.
Lily (Madeline Brewer), a young woman diagnosed with cancer, gets lost on a hike in the woods and comes across the small cabin belonging to Ella (Lydia Wilson) and Adam (Nick Blood). The two homeowners take her in and tend to her directional wounds but as the tension between the three begins to build, it is revealed that the couple harbors a dark secret that they will do anything to protect. This script, written by Takashi Doscher, had so much awesome potential to be a very original type of thriller but, unfortunately, is wasted by the meaningless direction. As far as mild spoilers go, I will just say that this movie has to do with a sort of fountain of youth. The premise of this film is undeniably interesting and while the characters might behave very stereotypically, there were some very promising choices. The flashbacks and reveal that this husband and wife have been on the run was clever and the multi-generational setting of this story was great. However, the dialogue throughout this film was incredibly wooden and it is a miracle that Wilson and Brewer were able to make their characters seem even slightly believable. This goes to show how great of actresses they are, as their solid performances actually distracted me just a *little* bit from how poor the writing was. As for the story itself, I was consistently lost throughout, all the way up until Doscher tried to explain what was even going on. He attempts to throw his audience for a loop by introducing an element of magical water in his story. My issue with this "plot twist" is not that it was a bad twist; in fact, it could have been excellent. The problem is that the mystical water had no incorporation into the story until the last fifteen minutes when it was convenient for the plot. Only then was it revealed that the cave the couple had been drinking from for decades was keeping them alive. This idea of a modern fountain of youth mixed into this horror setting is an absolutely astounding idea, but one that was just completely wasted by Doscher's direction.
Doscher seems to know what he is doing when it comes to filmmaking to some degree, but I just hope that this is not the culmination of his best work. Still really represents the fact that he has some fantastic ideas in his head but ones that need quite a bit more work refining before they are ready for production. Whether it be a little bit of Doscher's direction or a little bit of David Pergolini's editing that hurt this story (or most likely, a little bit of both), I could not get on board with this story's pacing. Killing off the main character in the first thirty minutes was a bad choice for this film and then promptly flashing back for another 45 minutes once again made me incredibly puzzled. Far too much time was spent exploring these characters with timing that just felt inappropriate and none of these choices ever paid off. This film jumps around in tone from homely to sexual to comedic to romantic like there are no rules and this lack of structure was also quite frustrating. Especially when it comes to the flashback sequence. This look back at Ella and Adam when they were living in the 1800s was very interesting but would have been much more effective had it been cut in between their story in the modern era. This is typically how flashbacks should work and while I'm not saying that taking a different approach is necessarily bad, intercutting between the past and the present will always be a safe and effective method of editing. I also feel like this film had little to no sound department, leaving all of the audio work to Pergolini, as there were multiple cuts throughout the film whose audio tracks were clearly jarring. Along with the music not being mixed very well with the dialogue, it honestly became a game to see how many little errors I could pick up on. The technical pieces of this film that stood out the most, however, were the production and costume design from Jennifer Chandler and Macarena Dorminey. This movie did look beautiful and the mise en scène actually made this movie somewhat bearable to watch.
Still is one of the most pointless thrillers I have seen and one with the potential to be something far greater. I absolutely loved the idea of the fountain of youth and thought that there were so many creative choices made in the telling of this modern story, but Doscher's direction dashed any hopes of this idea coming to fruition. I can not even recommend this film as background noise and there is nothing more upsetting to me than a movie without a purpose. Regardless of how well it could have been executed, this film was more lost than its protagonist in the first ten minutes.
My Rating: ★½
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