From Black, promising premise, but ultimately forgettable

From Black - Thomas Marchese – 2023

★★-Serviceable. Atmosphere is haunting/unsettling. Performances are solid. Story is engaging. However, it goes off the rails a little bit, getting unnecessarily challenging and tedious. There is a good movie that gets lost in an intricate web of a goat sacrifice, salt circles, hieroglyphics, spell conjuring, and dark takes on Finding Nemo. It was all a little overwhelming/complex. Feel that it kind of out-kicked its coverage. 

A young mother struggling with addiction is plagued by guilt after the disappearance of her young son, which she is suspected of causing. A man from her support group comes to her and promises to unveil the truth about what happened to her son and tells of a ritual that might bring him back. However, the cost she must pay has terrifying implications. In the end, she must choose how far she is willing to descend into darkness for a shot at redemption.

Directed by Thomas Marchese. Only other feature is a movie called Fallen that I've never heard of from 2017. Not a bad debut, though he isn't really offering anything super fresh into the well-trod horror genre. Stars Anna Camp as the lead, Cora, John Ales as Abel who introduces Cora to the dark arts, Jennifer Lafleur as the detective sister, and Travis Hammer as the druggy ex. 

Get a horrific child abduction and murder. Just a warning. The mother has an out-of-body experience that she has to watch. A demon tells her she can't speak, “lest this be your last memory of him.” Wow, that was f*****. The music makes the whole thing about 100 times worse. It's a disturbing series of burps. Thankful we were spared seeing the goat die. Eating raw goat meat doesn't seem like a good idea. 

The whole plot with the ritual goes off the rails. This is mostly because the guy running the ritual has picked a woman who can't follow instructions, which is on him. 

Towards the end something predictable, but satisfying happens. I think that's why the Critics' Score is so low and the Audience Score so high on Rotten Tomatoes. Tainted though so that gambit doesn't work. Demon didn't say anything about that when making his demands, which is lame. 

Something super messed up about this is the guy who kills her son was he was in her support group led by Abel at the beginning of the movie. It's a really complex, sinister implication. The way I read that is that this guy killed Noah so that Abel could use her as a vessel. There is some room for interpretation here. I feel this takes the movie up a star, for me. Sort of recommend for hardcore horror fans.