Spiral

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

That trailer is rather misleading. This is a strange little film from 2007 from Adam Green who also made the delightful horror slasher Hatchet and one of my new favourites Frozen, which has just been released in Australia.

This is NOT a slasher serial killer film like the trailer suggests. It's more of a drama/romance between a delightful young girl played by Amber Tamblyn and a severely socially awkward guy with some vague emotional problems wonderfully played by Joel Moore, who co-directed. The majority of the film is more of a character study of this damaged man and it lulls you into a false sense of security. Sure towards the end things do get dark and a little messed up but the in more of a kind of thriller way.

There's a twist ending that I won't talk about here that might turn some people off if they are digging the character drama vibe. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but in truth there probably wouldn't be a movie without it. And it's not handled too badly either. In fact throughout there are some nice directorial flourishes on display, I like the looseness in the camera and editing as the lead slowly gets more comfortable in his own skin and then goes a little crazy. The use of music throughout is cool, I think there should be more horror with jazz scores.

It's a neat little indi drama/thriller/romance/horror that just seemed to slip through the cracks a few years ago but if you like awesome dark character pieces or films that question reality and sanity give this a look.