FILM REVIEW: Pyewacket (2017)

Directed by Adam MacDonald

* * 1/2

I continuously find myself wondering why the subject of teenage angst is so condescendingly deprecated upon. Whether we were the social outcast or prom king/queen, it is a subject so universal to all of us. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, yet the topic still brings about dismissive scoffs. Perhaps revisiting angst-ridden days too painfully reminds one of troubling and regretful thoughts. Pyewacket will take you to those dark days, but take comfort, as I doubt many of us have had thoughts as grisly as those of Leah Reyes (Nicole Munoz).

While Leah may not be totally alienated, she definitely makes a point of staying on the social sidelines of high school. She has a very small circle of friends, she’s a goth and a metalhead, and she’s into the occult, her bookshelf filled with various tomes of black magic and pagan rituals. Things aren’t too well at home: her father has passed away and her mother (Laurie Holden) is an emotional wreck, almost always in tears and seemingly never without a bottle of wine. Finally, Mrs. Reyes can’t take it anymore: with the house being a frequent reminder of her husband, she sells it and moves to a small house in the woods.

Leah, having to leave her friends behind, is devastated. There has been mother-daughter tension in their relationship, but the move has only worsened it. Arguments get more frequent, and one debacle gets exceptionally heated. Enraged, Leah storms into the woods with relics and one of her occult books in hand. She goes through the ritual, calling upon the power of Pyewacket, hoping that it will curse her mother and ultimately destroy her. Strange things begin happening: Leah wakes up one morning to see the front door open with a trail of dirt dragged in; driving home, they have a split-second near collision with another car; one night, Leah hears footsteps in the attic.

As all this is happening, Mrs. Reyes opens her arms back up to Leah in understanding of her daughter’s frustrations. Leah soon regrets having conducted the ritual, and all of these bizarre episodes lead her to maddened paranoia.

You’ve heard me say it before, and you’ll hear me say it again (and again (and again)): the best of horror works with human drama setting the foundation. Pyewacket wisely followed this, so much so that for a while I forgot I was watching a horror film. While it depiction of teenage angst will not go down as one of the greatest, but it was well done, thanks to Nicole Munoz’s portrayal of Leah. Not an extraordinary performance, but she hits all the right notes in giving the character authentic angst-driven frustration as well as regretful paranoia – I truly believed Leah and all her struggles. Laurie Holden, though not on par with Munoz, has decent chemistry with Munoz. Not much to say, but then again, she’s not the central focus of Pyewacket, so it’s not too much of a problem.

You become engaged in the drama that you almost don’t notice the tension rise up, and it effectively sneaks up on you. It turns into an exemplary depiction of paranoia. We look at every single situation in the eyes and shoes of Leah – on one hand, perhaps all the weird stuff going on is either just coincidence or all in Leah’s head. Or is it the result of the Pyewacket ritual? These thoughts circle in your head over and over again and just tightens the tension. By the climax, Pyewacket goes from psychological suspense to bona fide horror. I dare not say a single thing, but let me just say that my jaw might as well have hit the floor. Stunning, terrifying, arresting.

The visual style also boosts the scare factor. Visually, Pyewacket is heavily indebted to the likes of The Evil Dead and The Blair Witch Project. If we’re not ethereally cruising through the forest in some sort of paranormal POV shot, we’re dashing through that same forest complete with jagged shaky-cam (for the record; this is not a found footage film). All at once, it makes the paranormal presence all the more real, while ironically making the situation feel more like paranoid delusion.

Pyewacket is a film that admirably keeps its mouth shut. When it comes to the exposition, it is addressed rather than explained, and any gaps that may be present can be easily filled by the viewer. The minimal dialogue also makes the already horrifying tension even more so. Unfortunately, the film went a little too far with staying “quiet”, so to speak. Pyewacket’s primary weakness is how underwritten it is. Yes, some moments work better with nothing said; other moments could really use some talking.

Take the title for instance: you might be wondering what the hell Pyewacket means. The online plot synopsis tells me that the titular namesake is some sort of witch of occult lore. Perhaps it is mentioned at some point in the movie, I don’t know. If so, I must have missed it. When the name is mentioned during the ritual, if seems more like some sort of mantra. Additionally, this underwritten script prevents any relationships in the movie from truly flourishing: as mentioned earlier, Leah is sad when she has to leave her friends, but those other kids are just kind of there and serve next to no purpose to the story, with the exception of Chloe Rose as Janice, who is involved in one of the film’s most terrifying sequences.

Some may complain about the score, which is about what you’d expect from a horror film. I didn’t mind it: the movie would work just as well without it. As an exercise in psychological horror, Pyewacket is truly terrifying, but Pyewacket still leaves a bit more to be desired than I would have liked. It’s worth a trip to the cinema for horror aficionados. Everbody else: do put it on your radar, but wait for the rental.