Another Hole in the Head Film Festival Coverage
Sweet Relief review.
An online game has devastating results in Sweet Relief. A movie that spends a bit too long on less interesting things…but ends with a heck of a bang.
Festival movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Sweet Relief
Directed by Nick Verdi
Written by Nick Verdi
Starring Alisa Leigh, B.R. Yeager, Adam Michael Kozak, Lucie Rosenfeld, Joselyn Lopez, Catie DuPont and Paul Lazar
Sweet Relief Review
Shot in six days on an ultra-low budget, Sweet Relief has some great ideas. When it focuses on its best concept…its an exciting, surprising movie. When it bogs itself down in some side characters and less interesting conversations…it can feel a lot like padding. The good news is that the story manages to tie enough threads together to deliver a banger of an ending. The beginnings and endings of stories are, perhaps, the most important parts. Sweet Relief nails them both.
The story begins with three girls and an online challenge. Lily (Jacelyn Lopez), Hannah (Lucie Rosenfeld) and Corey (Catie Dupont) nominate people they want to see dead. That’s how the online murder challenge Sweet Relief begins. What they don’t know is what happens next. If their target doesn’t die a creepy masked man named The Sweet Angel will kill you instead.
The premise is a fun bit of darkness. The movie only tells us two of the three picks to start out with. We see what happens to those people so that the main trio to remain alive. The realistic murders scenes fit the tone of Sweet Relief perfectly. Everything involving this part of the story…these three characters…is the highlight of the movie.
Unfortunately, Sweet Relief cuts away from them quickly, often, and for far too long. To be blunt, no character or plotline in the story is nearly as interesting or entertaining as the online murder game. Outside of one character’s journey intersecting with the third chosen target in the film’s climax…most of what we spend our time with feels unimportant.
There’s a bit of a mumblecore feel to the whole thing. Interconnected stories that look great and have a solid cast…but dialog often feels like something they just need to get through. The other characters we spend time with include Gerald, a crooked, murderous cop, Hannah’s brother, and his girlfriend Jess (Alisa Leigh), Hannah’s mother and a neighbor… These characters mostly talk about sadly less interesting things than the online murder challenge.
The stories intersect over and over. Of most interest is Jess’s story with the murderous cop. Their story gets appropriately dark. It also leads to the tremendous final scene that Sweet Relief has up its sleeve. It leaves you with a memorable climax that you’ll be thinking about long after watching it. Bringing its characters together for one insane moment in time. A moment worth waiting for…even if it means sitting through some less interesting scenes.
Thankfully, as mentioned above, Sweet Relief bookends any problems with segments well worth your time. It starts out hot with an engaging horror concept and a creepy potential antagonist. It ends even hotter with a dynamite conclusion to its interwoven stories. The road between them can’t maintain those highs…but there is an interesting, dark story to get you through.
As an experiment, Sweet Relief is an interesting one. Its best idea is moved to the background for most of the story. When it gets back to it…it delivers a great ending. Given the budget and truncated shooting schedule, it’s an impressive accomplishment for the production to be as strong as it is. If you can deal with a few detours…the destination is worth the trip. The opening will grab your attention. The payoff will drop your jaw.
Scare Value
When Sweet Relief deals with the fallout of its deadly game…it absolutely flies. Unfortunately, it gets sidetracked by less interesting endeavors for long stretches of time. As an overall package it is an impressive feat given its budget and shooting schedule. When it finally converges its storylines, it delivers a strong climax. Strong enough to make it a worth a watch.
