A Horrible Way to Die (2010)

This should have been called "A Horrible Waste of Time". A barely coherent attempt at layering multiple timelines, painfully slow to the point my eyes were rolling in my head at times as I tried to stay awake, and a weak twist delivered far too late in the day to be worthwhile waiting for.

Solid early feature length film from mumble-gore film maker Adam Wingard. You can see him cutting his teeth on the genre, and he's definitely gotten better since this outing, but it is still a very solid effort. Not this most original premise ever, ex-alcoholic is haunted by her past, meets new guy and starts to move on, as her serial killer ex boyfriend escapes from prison to come find her.

Granted this film won't be for everyone. The pace is deliberately slow, there is way too much shakey cam and unless you are engaged in general the performances could come across as underwhelming. But that is kinda the mumble-gore genre in a nutshell. AJ Bowen's beard length is a constant touchstone for flashbacks that help flesh out the story and give us some idea how Amy Seimetz ended up where she is.

AJ Bowen is excellent as always, as is Amy Seimetz. Joe Swanberg does that typical thing that he does where he is so laid back that it barely seems like he is acting, which can come across as too subtle, but there is some real thought that has gone into his ultra-real performance as just a regular dude. He's so real he seems like he shouldn't be in films, but if you have seen him acting in enough you realise there is a lot going on in his under-acting.

The movie plods along slowly and deliberately, building up tension in increments, until a mildly surprising finale, then it just stops. I don't know what I wanted from the end, maybe just a little more oomph. I highly doubt the budget had room for more oomph, so instead it the film just kind stops.

Terrible name. I don't know what it should have been called but not this. To say too much more would detract from the film itself, if you like Bowen, Seimetz, Swanberg, Barrett and Wingard's lo-fi indie thriller shtick, check this out.

6/10