Vicious review
Paramount+ enters Spooky Season with a platform for a strong Dakota Fanning performance…and not much else.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Vicious
Directed by Bryan Bertino
Written by Bryan Bertino
Starring Dakota Fanning
Vicious Review
Writer/director Bryan Bertino is best known for the original version of The Strangers. The Strangers is a movie where not much happens, but it nevertheless became a hit. A big enough hit to warrant a sequel, a remake, and a sequel to the remake. That last one may not have been popular enough to warrant a completion to its reboot trilogy…but Bertino is back with another horror movie streaming now on Paramount+. Not much happens in it either.
Vicious gives star Dakota Fanning a lot of space to turn in another strong performance to add to her resume. Other than that, it’s not a story that always makes sense. Or feels particularly interesting. Or engaging. In fact, if it weren’t for Fanning’s commitment to giving everything she can while acting opposite nothing…Vicious wouldn’t have anything to talk about at all.
The story, as much as there is one, involves 32 year old Polly (Fanning). She hasn’t figured out anything about her life yet and it’s starting to weigh on her. One night a strange woman knocks on her door speaking in cryptic messages. Polly tries to help the woman…and ends up inheriting a curse that will lead to her death if she doesn’t follow three rules in time. The woman gives Polly a box and an hourglass. The hourglass isn’t dropping any sand…at first. Once Polly understands her role in this weirdness and opens the box…the timer begins.
If she wants to survive whatever is happening in Vicious, Polly needs to fill the box with three items. Something she hates, something she needs, and something she loves. Sounds simple enough. At least given the circumstances of a strange person handing you a box and a death warrant anyway. If that wasn’t enough…weird things start happening to Polly. A phone call with her mother turns into something else. Her long dead father has something to say to her as well. Polly’s reflection offers some brutal hints to surviving this ordeal. Trying to get help from a neighbor turns out to be a deadly mistake…for the neighbor.
Vicious utilizes a lot of horror ideas we’ve seen before. The scary reflection. Phone calls from people who aren’t who they claim to be. Shocking moments of unexpected violence. It’s nothing new. It’s not very effective either. Although the movie tries to make Polly’s predicament feel big and important…it struggles to every do so. We don’t know that much about Polly before the knock on her door happens. We’ve never seen her happy or even interacting with another human being. Everything we know about her life before we are supposed to fear for it boils down to her not liking it very much. We learn more as the story unfolds, of course…but it’s never stuff that makes you compelled to find a happy ending for her.
That’s where Fanning’s work comes in. While there is no reason on paper to be invested in Polly’s night of horror…Fanning manages to pull you in by sheer force of will. She portrays Polly’s personal terror in a way that feels immediate and relevant in a way the story itself never earns. A great performance can elevate a bad script…but it can only take it so far. Fanning gives an excellent one. It’s almost enough to keep you distracted from the number of times you’ll find yourself scratching your head over what is going on…or why it’s happening.
The only other true positive to the movie is that it is willing to get quite dark. There’s some body horror…and some child in peril stuff that works. As Paramount’s big Spooky Season offering this year I couldn’t help but be immediately reminded of Hulu’s recent release Stay. Vicious isn’t as sad as Stay…but it comes from the same place of irrepressible doom. We’re 0-2 on streamers offering anything fun this Spooky Season.
Vicious eventually gets around to trying to explain itself. It doesn’t really fill the gaps as much as it attempts to find a way to end the story. The whole thing isn’t overly satisfying and, honestly, only makes as much sense as you want it to. Maybe the best moment of Vicious comes near the end. Fanning stands alone in the middle of a snow covered road smoking a cigarette and surveying her situation. She looks confused, worried and totally uncertain about what she’s supposed to take from any of this. Same, Polly. Same.
Scare Value
Vicious doesn’t really work. It has some good moments of gore and a couple effective emotional beats…but there’s nothing that interesting holding the narrative together. If it weren’t for Dakota Fanning’s impressive commitment to the skeleton of a story that’s here…Vicious would be a total lost cause. She’s very good here. Pulling a compelling character out of almost nothing. That might be enough to recommend a watch one day. But those who remember when Spooky Season used to have fun movies will need to look elsewhere.
2/5
Vicious Link
Streaming on Paramount+
