The Verdict
This is a genuine formal experiment, Nash, and I respect the nerve. You told the whole thing almost entirely from the killer's slow, silent point of view, which turns a stalk-and-slash into a nature walk that occasionally ends in viscera.
Resurrected mute killer Johnny hunting teens in the Ontario wilderness is standard slasher meat, but framing it from his shoulders deconstructs the genre instead of just repeating it. Sundance 2024 noticed, and so did the critics.
The meditative pacing is the feature and the bug. When the practical kill set-pieces hit, they are brutal and earned. Between them, you are asking a lot of patience for a payoff that does not always rush back.
What it nails
- ▲The killer's-point-of-view conceit, a real structural idea executed with discipline.
- ▲Brutal, practical kill set-pieces that pay off the long silent build-ups.
- ▲Deconstructing the slasher genre rather than recycling its beats.
- ▲The Ontario wilderness used as a slow, oppressive character in its own right.
What it botches
- ▼Meditative pacing that tips into tedium for viewers not on board with the experiment.
- ▼A mute, near-silent protagonist that keeps the audience at arm's length emotionally.
- ▼Thin victim characterization, since the camera is busy following Johnny instead.
- ▼A concept so committed that the gimmick sometimes outweighs the story underneath it.
Who it's for
Horror heads who love a formal swing, gorehounds who want practical effects, and anyone curious what a slasher feels like from the wrong side of the blade.
Who should skip
Anyone who wants a brisk body-count slasher and will lose patience the third time the killer ambles through the trees in silence.
The whole story lives on the hub