Pyewacket

Director - Adam MacDonald (Blackfoot Trail, Slasher)
Starring - Laurie Holden (The Walking Dead, Dragged Across Concrete), Nicole Munoz (Van Helsing, Once Upon a Time), and Chloe Rose (Degrassi: Next Class, Dark Matter)
Release Date - 2017
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "Be careful what you wish for.  Someone might be listening"
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Back in October I laid out a stack of movies that I wanted to marathon during the month.  Some were new movies sent to me for review and others were older releases that I needed to review but had misplaced or packed up in totes by mistake after the house fire.  Several of those were some IFC Midnight and Scream Factory collaboration releases.  The artwork on all these were fantastic and I couldn't wait to dig into them.  The first on the chopping block was the 2017 release Pyewacket starring The Walking Dead's Laurie Holden and Nicole Munoz.  Thank you Scream Factory for sending this one my way!

     The film follows angsty Leah (Munoz) who lives with her mother (Holden) after the death of her father.  They both struggle with his death in different ways.  Leah has turned to black magic while her mother drinks.  In an attempt to make things better for them her mother packs up and moves away to a new home while still allowing Leah to finish her school year out to be with her friends.  However, Leah refuses to think about anyone other than herself and turns to black magic to rid her of her mother.  She performs a ritual to summon a demon to kill her...and it works after she reconciles with her mother.  Now she must stop the beast before it takes her mother or is it too late?  

     I went into this one very excited.  I wanted to watch Pyewacket before Halloween but life got ahead of me so it was put on the back burner until now.  Sadly, I kind of wish I would have waited longer to see it.  The movie was so boring that I couldn't finish it in one viewing.  I had to turn it off so I could watch something before giving it another go.  The acting in this one is very dry.  I was expecting more from a film of this caliber.  The characters are painfully cliched and the cast has very little to work with.  With that being said, the cast never gets the chance to make the characters their own.  The scene moves straight on with the story.  Normally, this wouldn't be an issue but the character development is placed on the first scene of the film and then never touched upon again.  The story for this one is interesting but the impact is lost along the way.  What we do get is very predictable and you see the little twist coming a mile away.  I also didn't like how the characters were written.  It was damn near impossible for me to like the film's main character.  She's a cry baby and clearly spoiled.  I think the story was written to have the audience not like her and sympathize with the mother but once filming started this was lost in the shuffle of the story.  Finally, if you are looking for blood the film has some but don't expect gore or memorable kills.  We get some blood in the film but the film is more centered around the mother/daughter relationship and Leah's attempt at summoning an evil presence.  Overall, Pyewacket just wasn't that good to me.  It was a boring movie that had an interesting story that fails to go anywhere.  This is one I will not be revisiting.