Written by: Ryan Dailey
We Need To Do Something is a dandelion growing up through the cracks of the barren, aged concrete known as the horror genre. Based on the novella of the same name by Max Booth III, We Need To Do Something is a tale of the end of the world told from the perspective of a family trapped in their bathroom by a fallen tree blocking the door during a horrendous storm as forces of evil rage on outside.
It is a tale told mostly through the perspective of Melissa (Sierra McCormick) as she tries to cope with the fact that the end of the world was brought on by a spell she and her girlfriend cast to silence a school bully.
The film is a delightful marriage of Giallo with elements of Jacob’s Ladder and The Craft. One does not watch this film, as they experience it, almost like one would a play, due in large part to the acting. Every single cast member keeps your full attention on the screen, a miracle in horror as typically films in the genre uses sex, violence or a combination of both to achieve the same thing.
This movie zigs when you think it is going to zag. It keeps you guessing as to what could possibly happen next, and chances are, you would be wrong. The dialog and sequence of events are the fodder of a fever dream, concocted by, in my opinion, some truly genius and under-appreciated filmmakers and a great voice in prose horror.
We Need To Do Something is like a proverbial onion. It has so many layers to it underneath its horror movie skin. At its heart, it is the story of a father’s descent into madness brought on by alcoholism, a miserable mother’s infidelity and two children being ripped apart in the middle of it all. One could even say the film is perfect for the times we live in. The bad monster outside could be compared to Covid and the family could be an allegory for the general populous, confined inside with only our closest family around us. Either interpretation is a study in flawed humans wrestling with whatever demons they may have and the bathroom is the perfect setting, as it is one of the smaller rooms in the house and is where bile is expelled, much like how the family’s emotional bile is expunged during their predicament.
If you love horror that makes you think, give We Need To Do Something a watch on Hulu or rent it from many other streaming platforms.