For every Ryan Coogler, Rian Johnson, or Denis Villeneuve who burst onto the indie scene to become box office hits, there are undoubtedly plenty that fall flat from the start, and Acoryé White and Patrycja Kepa, unfortunately, find themselves in the latter group with The Grove. This sci-fi horror thriller marks their third collaboration together following the supernatural horror film Trinket Box and the romantic drama short Right Way to Love; however, it doesn't seem like they're growing in any significant direction as filmmakers.
It has so much potential in suspending disbelief that it can provide immense excitement, but at the same time it constantly runs the risk of being absurd and far-fetched. The Grove is a modest addition to the genre. A potentially compelling premise about turning an ordinary soldier into a flawed superhuman suffers from a lackluster execution that could have exceeded expectations, but this film nearly passes the test. For starters, setting the film primarily in a cabin in the woods creates a scenario that's too clichéd to allow suspense to develop. A mad scientist approach enhances its overall appeal, and while the outcome is too abrupt and fantastical to warrant redemption, it could invite debate. This peculiar marriage of Universal Warrior and Friday the 13th offers more than a few shocks and chills, though it certainly remains entertaining from start to finish.
Co-written and co-directed by White and Kepa, with the former also leading the cast, The Grove centers on special operations soldier TJ, who returns home to his fiancée six months after undergoing an experimental procedure to enhance his skills and excel in combat. During a weekend trip with friends to celebrate homecoming, TJ forgets his medication and starts drinking, against his doctor's orders. Things start to go wrong, and long-standing tensions among the group threaten to do more than just ruin their festivities.
With a premise that promises a mix of physical and psychological horror with character drama, The Grove certainly sounds like it has a lot of potential on paper. Unfortunately, the film clearly didn't know what to do with its story, as the first 15 minutes and the last 30 minutes are the only sections that truly explore TJ's deterioration. Even his descent into madness that we see from him isn't fully explored, with very little explanation about the experiment or the motive behind his actions.
What makes all this worse is that, at roughly 100 minutes long, The Grove devotes an entire hour to its characters partying and arguing about their relationships, including two characters practically flirting with each other, despite one of them being in a relationship. The script is so poorly constructed that the scenes seem to lack a defined structure and offer very little autonomy to the characters involved. This is especially true of the female cast, who seem to exist only to be window dressing for the men.
Another of The Grove's most glaring plot problems is that it doesn't have an ending, but instead, it's one of the most blatant sequels I've seen in a long time. There's certainly something to a film that leaves some questions unanswered, whether for the audience to debate or to possibly leave the door open for a sequel, but before doing so, there should be a satisfying enough conclusion. However, I was baffled by the fact that it ultimately left more questions than answers.
In addition to a poorly crafted script, The Grove also suffers from mediocre direction. Throughout the film, the directing duo attempts to add a few stylistic touches to their visual palette, including blurred vignettes and Steadicam shots in some of the supposedly intense scenes, but they actually end up clashing with the film's aesthetic. Many scenes made me question not only their need to exist in the film, but also why they looked so poorly filmed.
The greatest example of this is the final act of The Grove, in which the group of characters runs through the woods, hiding from TJ at night after he turns violent. In a move rarely seen since the original Blair Witch Project, it appears that White and Kepa opted to use minimal supplemental lighting for the scene or attempted to simulate daytime as nighttime by drastically reducing brightness and contrast. Whichever method was used, I felt completely removed from the action simply because I could barely see what was happening.
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