A Horrible Way to Die
Director: Adam Wingard
Writer: Simon Barrett
Cast: AJ Bowen, Amy Seimetz, Joe Swanberg
Part of: /slash Filmfestival

Plot:
Sarah (Amy Seimetz) is trying to start a new life after her boyfriend Garrick (AJ Bowen) was arrested for murdering several women. She got clean and started dating Kevin (Joe Swanberg). But then Garrick escapes from prison and starts to catch up with Sarah.

Simon Barrett has written a very good script and the cast isn’t bad either. But unfortunately Adma Wingard and his camera work and editing drove me pretty much insane, completey ruining the film.

Most of the film’s images seem to be unfocused or focusing on some light in the foreground while things happen in the background. And Wingard’s favorite way to transition from one scene to the next is by panning the camera away from the characters and unfocusing even more. After about 10 minutes of this, I wanted to strangle him.

And the focus wasn’t his only problem because he had apparently never heard of a tripod in his life. What is it with modern filmmakers and shaky cam [bane of my existence]? Is it really so hard to understand that a camera is supposed to show us what’s going on instead of giving us a vague impression of what might be happening?

Combine that with a frankly horrible soundtrack and the screenplay – which tells an interesting story from an interesting perspective – doesn’t stand a chance to save this movie.

It could have been a wonderful, atmospheric movie, the script has all the makings for that. And the cast is good, too. [SPOILER] Though Joe Swanberg is a littel too upfront about his creepiness since I suspected the dude right from the start. [/SPOILER] But unfortunately I was more annoyed than anything else.

Summarising: What a waste.