Something Wicked

Director - Darin Scott (Dark House)
Starring - Shantel VanSanten (The Final Destination), Brittany Murphy (The Dead Girl), and Julian Morris (Cry_Wolf)
Release Date - 2009/2015
Genre - Thriller
Tagline - "A tale of evil deed and doomed love"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Sometimes a celebrity will agree to do a film and there namesake will become bigger than the film itself.  We see this all the time in the horror genre with legends like Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Jeffrey Combs, Brink Stevens, and so many others.  These amazing actors and actresses get cast in small roles that last for mere minutes but their names get plastered on everything.  This can be very deceiving for their fans who expect to see amazing performances from each only to see them play a small background character that is insignificant to the story.  Recently, news of the film Something Wicked broke and every horror outlet was sharing the news mostly because it was the late Brittany Murphy's last film.  Murphy was never really an actress that I followed but I wanted to check it out just to show my respects to the deceased.  I requested a copy and they were kind enough to hook me up with one.
     The film follows a young couple as they attend dinner with her parents.  The young man asks her parents for their blessings to marry their daughter.  They tell him no because they are too young and booze it up a bit.  They make their daughter's boyfriend drive them home but on the way their car stalls on the train tracks with a train approaching.  The film picks up a year later and the two are still a happy couple but her parents did not survive the on-coming train.  The young girl lives with her sister and her husband who just happens to be an officer.  He is very protective of his wife's little sister and disapproves of her relationship with the young guy.  The young man works at a saw mill along with an unstable man who obsesses over her.  To make matters worse, the young woman is being harassed by someone wearing a mask.  Her sister starts to think she is making it up but then believes that she is possessed by their dead parents.  The two try to plan for their wedding but something natural or supernatural has conspired against them.
     Sometimes I wish the marketing behind certain films were brutally honest with the viewer so they would know what they were getting themselves into.  At first glance the viewer may think that Something Wicked is a ghost story starring Brittany Murphy when, in actuality, it is far from that.  The acting in this one is top notch by the entire cast with the exception of Murphy as odd as that may seem.  The entire cast gives the film their all and make their characters solid and believable.  Sadly, Murphy was difficult to watch and her character was extremely difficult to like.  The story for this one is tricky.  At first the film wants to think it is a ghost story before mixing it up and giving the viewer generic thriller.  The film actually felt like two different takes on the same story.  The ghost angle seems to focus on Murphy's character and was possibly abandoned with her death.  The later portion of the film feels like a straight forward thriller which makes the film feel out of place.  Finally, the film does have a few on screen kills but they are nothing bloody or amazing.  In fact, they are something you would come to expect from a generic thriller.  Overall, Something Wicked is a supposed supernatural thriller that skips on the supernatural. The film is well acted for the most part and has a decent story once you get past the inconsistency.  The film deserves at least one watch but has no replay value due to the film's flaws.