Josh Bell
This week’s fringe VOD releases feature half-hearted attacks by sharks and krakens, plus a delivery driver taking a psychedelic journey, a rancher making a stand, and a brain-damaged woman confronting her past.
Chum (VOD and select theaters June 5): Although producers of this abysmal shark-attack thriller have denied using AI in their suspicious-looking visual effects, dependence on unreliable algorithms might at least be an excuse for the inconsistent appearance of the shark and the unnatural contortions of its victims. Those victims are the monumentally unlikable members of a wedding party on the gorgeous Malta coast, where a leisurely boat ride turns into a nightmare after they’re kidnapped by a deranged shark hunter. Roy (Jim Klock) is out for revenge against the great white shark that killed his wife, and he needs people to use as chum, now that the shark has a taste for human blood. It’s a wan riff on the much more entertainingDangerous Animals, with a villain who’s nothing more than a whiny loser. The protagonists, led by Alice Eve as the petulant bride, are equally unappealing, and the actors give stiff, awkward performances delivering artificial-sounding dialogue. It’s hard to imagine AI coming up with anything worse. Grade: D-
Wetiko (VOD June 9): Violating the 30 Rock adage “never go with a hippie to a second location” proves disastrous for pet-store employee Aapo (Juan Daniel García Treviño) in writer-director Kerry Mondragon’s psychedelic freakout. Beautifully shot on 16mm film, Wetiko looks like an unearthed 1970s exploitation movie, and Aapo’s journey from the city into the Mexican jungle to deliver a pair of hallucinogenic toads could be the opening to a horror film. There are Midsommar undertones to the Empire of Love cult that hires Aapo, but Wetiko is more philosophical than horrific, focused on the clash between indigenous healers and opportunistic foreigners. Empire of Love is led by blatantly sleazy white South African Zake (Neil Sandilands), who lures in Aapo because of his Maya ancestry, intending to use the young man in the same way he uses the toads. Some of the plotting is a little unclear, but Wetiko has the hazy vibes of an acid trip, putting the audience alongside Aapo as he’s drawn deeper into this baffling, dangerous underworld. Grade: B
Broken Land (VOD June 12): David Morse has been a dependable character actor for 40-plus years, and he makes the most of a rare leading role in this well-intentioned if slightly simplistic drama about a Texas rancher learning a lesson in empathy. Morse’s quiet authenticity keeps the movie grounded even as his sullen widower Carson Tidwell goes from dropping racial slurs to risking his own safety to protect a pregnant migrant. At first, Carson fires his rifle indiscriminately at the immigrants trespassing on his land, but when he discovers injured El Salvadoran refugee Irena (Jaklyn Bejarano) in his barn, he takes pity on her, eventually shielding her from the authorities. Director and co-writer J.T. Walker doesn’t entirely avoid the pitfalls of movies like Gran Torino or The Marksman, which congratulate their crotchety white protagonists for recognizing the humanity of people of color, but Broken Land is less heavy-handed, emphasizing small moments of connection over grand pronouncements. Morse brings genuine vulnerability to his performance, and the movie follows his lead. Grade: B
Kraken (VOD and select theaters June 12): As movie monsters go, krakens are relatively underrepresented, but this underwhelming Norwegian creature feature is unlikely to initiate a krakenaissance. Director and co-writer Pål Øie takes his cues from the Alien franchise, even giving the giant sea-dwelling kraken its own equivalent of facehuggers, small parasites that scurry about and attach themselves to humans to drain their blood. The kraken itself remains mostly underwater, with only its massive tentacles breaking the surface, but not before lots of dull set-up about government inspector Johanne (Sara Khorami) investigating the questionable delousing technology at a salmon fishery. Those sonic devices have the unfortunate side effect of releasing the kraken, which rises up from the depths of the fjord to attack the fishery’s floating command center. The acting is decent, but the characters are one-dimensional, and Øie generates minimal suspense from repetitive scenes of people being stalked through dank corridors by undulating tentacles (which sometimes inexplicably sound like they’re roaring). Neither Kraken nor the kraken have anything particularly new to offer. Grade: C
This Tempting Madness (VOD and select theaters June 12): The mental states of both the main character and her estranged husband seem less than tempting in this vague yet overwrought thriller. Mia (Simone Ashley) awakens in the hospital with only fragmented memories of the fall from a balcony that left her with multiple injuries, including trauma to her brain. Her husband Jake (Austin Stowell) has been arrested for her attempted murder, but he also can’t quite remember what happened. Director and co-writer Jennifer E. Montgomery teases various secrets as Mia struggles to distinguish her visions and flashbacks from present reality, but the final revelations are confusing and anticlimactic. Mia’s stylized panic attacks become repetitive, and there’s little sense of her previous life with Jake and their young daughter. Ashley brings some affecting anguish to the role, but the people surrounding Mia are such ciphers that it wouldn’t be a surprise for the movie to end with a clichéd supernatural twist — even though an opening title card claims that it’s based on a true story. Grade: C
