Directed by Robert Rippberger
Written by Robert Rippberger, Spencer Moleda
Starring Booboo Stewart, Scarlett Sperduto, Bryson JonSteele
Unrated
Runtime: 94 Min
Available in select theaters and On Demand February 11th

by Whitley Albury, Staff Writer

How familiar are you with Ursula K. LeGuin? I promise, this is relevant. I’m one of those nerds who kept meaning to read, well, anything she wrote, and still hadn’t actually finished a story until now. But track down The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas real quick. Read it? Good.

The film has a beautiful opening credit sequence, with an eerie score ringing underneath. You’re already primed for a spooky time. It then opens on Max (Booboo Stewart) walking through the park, waiting on a date to show up. He gets a call from his friend, Dave (Connor McKinley Griffin), trying to hype him up for his date and giving a little bit of backstory. It’s not heavy-handed at all, and I truly think that this was the best phone conversation scene I’ve ever watched. Max gets a text from Avery (Scarlett Sperduto) and goes to meet her, continuing the best phone scene. The pair walk to their date at the movie theater, with Avery talking about her thesis project on the aforementioned short story, her job as a manager at the theater. Just usual pre-date chit chat. But as the two approach the theater, there’s been a bomb threat called in. One of Avery’s coworkers reveals that she’s just a lowly concession worker, not a manager. And honestly, that character was such a dick. I’m still curious about his motives after thinking about this movie days later.

The pair adapt, change their plans, and talk about haunted houses. Avery introduces the idea of Rotcreep (Nils Allen Stewart). He’s almost like a tulpa (if you believe enough in him, he’s real). And he lives in a haunted house on the outskirts of town. This is where shit starts getting weird. Avery insists on taking Max on this dare of a trip to the haunted house where Rotcreep lives and tortures his victims. Turns out, that trauma-bonding and sharing Max and Avery had earlier was all a ruse.

The director, Robert Rippberger says the film is “deeply personal and deeply fictional” and “loosely inspired by a short story that underlined the moral predicament about living high while others suffer. What struck me most though was how that connects with escapism—and particularly how it related to my own ways of escaping and coping.”

I think the thing that impressed me the most with this film was how it all seemed like one long, endless, seamless take. It definitely added to the disconcerting feeling you get through the entire film. As fantastic as Booboo Stewart is as Max, I think the real star here is Rudy (Bryson JonSteele). I won’t go into much detail about who he is, because that’s best reserved for you to discover. But he was truly phenomenal. The score throughout is also incredibly creepy. And when we finally see Rotcreep, he’s like the best part of a haunt. He’s creepy, but also weirdly cute? I’d love to see Rotcreep masks around for Halloween this year. And I think the most impressive part is how Rippberger and Moleda took this short story that was only four pages long and kept the same unsettling feeling throughout a feature length film. Obviously, liberties were taken as far as the story goes, but the vibes stay the same. If you want a horror flick that makes you think and has no gore, I’d say check this out.