Significant Other Review.
Paramount+ enters spooky season with a fine little entry in the “don’t go in the woods” subgenre. Two great performances, fun twists and gorgeous cinematography make Significant Other a walk in the woods worth taking.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Significant Other
Directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen
Screenplay by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen
Starring Maika Monroe and Jake Lacy
Significant Other Review
One of the best things a genre movie can do is become a completely different movie at some point. Just recently we saw Sissy pull that trick to great effect. Significant Other doesn’t quite match that movie for sheer craziness after the turn…but it does an admirable job building to becoming something new. A Significant Other review is hard to do without talking spoilers…but we will do our best.
Ruth (Maika Monroe) and Harry (Jake Lacy), a couple in a long-term relationship, take a backpacking trip into the woods. Things become awkward between them when Harry proposes marriage knowing that Ruth is against it. Things become more awkward when Ruth discovers some alien goop in a cave and begins to act very differently.
That’s as much as we can talk about the plot of Significant Other. Instead, let’s talk about why you should watch Significant Other.
First, the performances of the two leads are top notch. Monroe is no stranger to horror movies having starred in It Follows, The Guest, Watcher and Villains (among others). She’s in great form here as Ruth, a character with serious anxiety issues. Lacy matches her with a great performance of his own.
Significant Other is also a pretty gorgeous movie. Beautifully shot wooded areas fill the frame and create a great remote setting. There are times where the film becomes a bit too dark to see everything, but they are rare enough. Directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen do a good job building tension with some interesting shots in the first half of the movie. If there’s a complaint, it’s that the feel of the movie doesn’t change quite enough when the movie turns at the halfway point.
That’s not to say it doesn’t change at all. There is a slight tonal shift in place after things we can’t talk about here transpire. It could have benefited from a more concerted effort to match the script with a different aesthetic or pace…but this is a relatively minor complaint. It shifts just enough.
The first half of the movie is better than the second half…but the second half is more fun and well worth taking the ride. Clocking in at only 84 minutes, Significant Other is a quick, easy watch. The lead performances will draw you in and the building done in the first half is not wasted when the movie becomes what it really is. There are moments when Significant Other can become a bit ridiculous…but it’s all in keeping with a fun payoff.
Scare Value
This Significant Other review is hampered by an inability to discuss spoilers but there are plenty of reasons to check it out without knowing its secrets. Monroe and Lacy do an excellent job throughout the movie. Featuring an excellent first half build to a fun second half payoff, Significant Other is well worth adding to your queue. Budget constraints likely keep it from going as nuts as it wants to…but what they captured is a gorgeously shot, well-acted, surprising movie.
3/5
