Written by Victoria Obsorn
Directed and written by Jeremiah Kipp (‘Black Wake’; ‘Painkiller’), this full length movie is based on a short Kipp also directed/ written. It starts out with a young boy and an older boy taking turns slapping each other in the face. You can see that the younger boy is very distressed about this event. Sinister music begins to play as the title and credits slowly come on the screen with pictures to clue us in to what we might be seeing. One such picture is a newspaper clipping with the title, “Father looking for missing children”, followed by another clipping titled, “Local boy found with bloody hatchet, exclaims ‘The woman in the woods made me do it.’” Piqued your curiosity yet?
As it goes on, it is revealed that the young boy, (we are still not sure his name at this point), is curious about a legend of a monster in the area named ‘The Virago witch’. He is seen in the library doing extensive research on it. He pricks his finger and buries a picture of his family with his blood in the woods, while his brother Tom (Mike Manning {‘This Is Us’; ‘The Way Out’ }) is at work, we suppose. We figure out immediately that Tom has a drinking problem as we see him in a bar picking up a girl (Libe Barer{‘I See You’; ‘iCarly’}). Enters the sheriff played by Dan Hedaya (‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ ; ‘The God Committee’) who tells Tom that his brother Lucas(August Maturo {‘The Nun’; ‘Girl Meets World’}) is running out of get out of jail free cards, and clues us in that there was a tragedy that left the boys to take care of themselves.
Back at home, there is more of the game slap face, which we now find out is a way Tom ‘disciplines’ his brother when he is acting out. The girl from the bar is now a part of Tom’s life which Lucas is clearly not happy about.
Next scene we hear him screaming for help as he is being chased by three girls. Older twins played by Bianca D’Ambrosio (‘Fear of Rain’;’Remnants of the Fallen’) and Chiara D’Ambrosio (‘The Magic’ ;’I Am Mortal’). They trick him into getting close to them so they can beat him up to defend Moriah(Mirabelle Lee{‘Unleashed’ ; ‘B Positive’}) whom he is supposedly stalking. (Later on we find out she wants to be his girlfriend when no one is looking.)
Moriah asks him if he wants to join their group and they dare him to go into an old building where he meets a monster, brilliantly played by Lukas Hassel (‘7th Secret’; ‘Return to Danger’). Only the monster doesn’t seem to want to hurt Lucas, or does it?
Tom and Anna seem pretty hot and heavy dating and have a “family” meal where Anna freaks about a cut Lucas has, in which his brother blows off and says he can take care of himself then proceeds to says inappropriate sexual stuff to Anna in front of Lucas. Lucas is obviously uncomfortable and upset that he now is not getting the attention he clearly is craving. He tries to deal with the uncomfortable situation by telling them about the monster. They are not listening, so he decides to let them have their date after it was quite obvious that Tom wanted him gone.
With the bullying from the only “friends” Lucas has, the complete lack of concern from his brother, and severity of the ridiculous game, you get the feeling that this is a ‘normal’ daily occurrence for Lucas to have to deal with, along with taking care of his drunk older brother at times and still grieving his dead parents. Poor Kid!
Lucas seeks out the monster again. The monster and Lucas become friends though we are not sure if the monster is good or bad; if its intentions for Lucas is good or bad. The monster leaves a blue flower path for Lucas to follow and seems to watch Lucas and his house closely. We watch several dragged out minutes of the daily life Lucas must endure, including having to listen to his drunk brother fight with Anna over his whereabouts. Anna seems to be very interested in helping Lucas, to which angers Tom.
Sadly, it seems the only ‘healthy’ relationship Lucas has at this point is with the monster. If you can really say that is healthy. But what does this monster want? It seems not only very protective of Lucas, but also, very jealous of any relationship that may draw Lucas away from it.
This movie warns against abuse and bullying. While some scenes were a bit cringeworthy, it seemed necessary to build the story. Overall this is a very unique way to warn us against a common problem, with some jump scares and creepy moments. The music composed by Barry J. Neely complimented the movie like a well fit glove.
“Slapface” is a cross between an after school special and a classic horror. We wouldn’t want to bully you into watching, but we think it would be a great idea.