Pernicious (2015)

the audience applauded

Highly Overrated But Still Good

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Terrible and pointless story, Which would not be out of place in a soap opera. The only upside is the use of Thailand for a backdrop. The three actresses should of been wearing bikinis that would of made the film more watchable.

Three American fitties, Alex, Julia and Rachel (Ciara Hanna, Emily O'Brien and Jackie Moore), travel to Thailand in order to teach English to children (and to pick up sleazy British guys in bars for casual sex), but find themselves menaced by a Kumari, the vengeful spirit of a young girl who was sacrificed in a bloody ritual.Borrowing heavily from post-millennial horror hits The Grudge and Hostel, James Cullen Bressack's Pernicious is a wholly unoriginal torture porn/creepy girl ghost story that tests the patience from the word go. Its three central girls might look great in a pair of tiny shorts, but they're unsympathetic characters, behaving in an irresponsible manner that is bound to end badly; the torture element is suitably nasty with fine gore effects by Jerami Cruise, but it's nothing we haven't seen many, many times before; and the supernatural scenes are totally predictable and scare free, supposedly nail-biting moments including the old 'it's under the duvet' trick and the tried-and-tested 'bathroom mirror reveal' (yawn!).Just about bearable thanks to the lovely ladies (alas, no nudity!) and the gore (best bit being the shot of a pulsating brain in an old woman's crushed skull), but don't expect Pernicious to deliver anything remotely original.

The title made me think that Pernicious was going to be one of those "mockbusters" from the studio The Asylum, but it ended up being a legitimate North American-Thai co- production whose premise evokes the wave of Asian horror which was fashionable in the previous decade. And I have to say that it fulfilled its mission on the most basic thematic level, because it resurrects the female ghost concept adding pretty much blood and some moderately original twists. Unfortunately, the poor performances and weak direction demerit the experience, and avoided me from being very satisfied by it. Needless to say, I will refrain myself from mentioning the surprises in the screenplay of Pernicious, so I will only say I liked its mythology, the wild natural settings and the ghost's innovative mechanic to attack its victims. And, like it occasionally happens with films which are set in distant countries (at least from my point of view), the story is spiced by captivating cultural details which end up being more interesting than the story itself. But, sure, without losing the common denominator of the horror which is understood in any language and region. On the negative side, the most important problem comes from the atrocious performances from the leading trio of actresses. Ciara Hanna, Emily O'Brien and Jackie Moore are certainly attractive, but they feel absolutely forced, antipathetic and occasionally laughable in their characters. And then, we have James Cullen Bressack's uncertain direction, which shows difficulty in orchestrating fluid and coherent scenes, besides of the fact it doesn't generate too much suspense or atmosphere. Nevertheless, I have to admit that Pernicious didn't bore me, and I appreciated its disturbing displays of gore. So, I can give a slight recommendation to it, specially as a reminder of a rich culture in which magic is a normal part of daily life. But what I would be really scared of are the jungle mosquitoes. Who needs bloody rituals when there are "bloodsuckers" with the size of a hummingbird?

I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this sick little film. There are many, many things that make it an exceptional film, but I think the thing that makes it stand out more than anything is the fact that it combines two sub-genres of the horror movie to make it a bit more unique than all of the other movies that reside in this kind. It's a slasher, with gore such as tongue-cutting, stabbing and eye gaging as well as a creepy, jump-scare oriented film. It leaves the viewer on edge, never knowing whether or not to expect a gruesome murder scene or a spooky edge of your seat scare! I think Bressack really outdid himself with this film and shows a lot of promise as a filmmaker.