Mixed race gay couple Aaron and Malik move away form the city to a quieter suburban neighborhood with Aaron's teenage daughter Kayla who feels she has been abandoned by her mother. They moved because of Aaron's job. And Malik is stay at home, freelance writer, ghostwriting the book of an advocate for gay conversion therapy. But not everything is what meets the eye. We meet Tiffany, the very sunny neighbor, her work-from-home husband and their son who is trying to befriend Kayla. And then there is a weird old grandfather who lurks around creepily around their house. Malik feels there is something off about the place (partly to do with his traumatic past and maybe schizophrenia) but Aaron won't have any of it. Set in 1995, Malik believes this town identifies a gay couple every 10 years , bring the into the community and eventually kill them brutally. He even finds some proof. But just after the first 20ish minutes the film goes all over the place, and it becomes hard for the viewer to keep a track of what's real ad what's imaginary.
The film tries to keep a lot of mystery around pretty much everything around the couple, but only at surface level. It never goes into details and never clarifies the causes behind it, leading into very frustrating experience for the viewers. It also throws in an unnecessary supernatural element that blunts the strength of the social commentary with its lurid violence and laughable contrivances. Malik looks good, acts well (and so do all actors) and I had hopes from the film but it was only short-lived. The film literally drags into unknown events and Malik spiraling in his head with whatever is surrounding him. In fact, even thee doing felt very random to me. Either the writers were not sure what exactly was the message they were trying to giver was it supposed to be more paranormal stuff. Overall, the premise and cast started off real well with the hope it will deal with a topic of homophobia and maybe gay parenting but a poor storyline and its shortcomings prevent it from becoming what its could have been. A slow dragging average queer horror at the best. (4/10)
Comments