Cry from Within, A (2015)
Matt Boiselle
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Starring Eric Roberts, Cathy Moriarty, Deborah Twiss
Directed by Zach Miller, Deborah Twiss
Distributed by Breaking Glass Pictures
A happy family meets a house with a truly demented secret, and all hell breaks loose…well, it’s a subtle, sedated kind of hell, but a hell nonetheless in A Cry from Within – the latest project from directors Zach Miller and Deborah Twiss (who also co-stars). Setting oneself apart from the same old possessed home film takes a lot in terms of back story setup, character delivery, and the effective sledge-hammering of scares to the audience; and while some of the aforementioned ingredients come across as passable, they are in fact just that: passable.
The movie lets us into the monetarily secure lives of Jonathan and Cecile (Roberts and Twiss) and their two children, Ariel and Morgan. With a beautiful (and expensive) apartment in the city, and the security of two cash-laden careers, it appears as if nothing could throw a roadblock into the lives of this overwhelmingly contented family unit.
When the tragic miscarriage of Cecile’s unborn child occurs, she opts to quit her job, and Jonathan agrees to look into the notion of taking over an ill friend’s psychiatry practice out of the city after he leaves the current office in which he’s working now. So the kids are packed up, the luxurious family vehicle is road-bound, and we set up the second, and possibly more integral, piece of this presentation.
Related Story: Win a Copy of A Cry from Within on DVD
Cathy Moriarty plays Alice, a contemptible caretaker to her bedridden mother, Sophia (Pat Patterson) – no love is lost between the two, and after dear old mom suffers a stroke that renders her unable to speak, it’s Alice whose words become stronger in backbone as well as volume. The air of acrimony between the two in their scenes is so thick you could cut it with a machete. More importantly, it conveys a very valuable piece of the story which will come into play later on.
After we return to our focal family, a little bit of car trouble forces them to stumble upon Alice’s home in search of help; a few moments of dialogue later… voila! Our happy (and unlucky) family are now the proud renters of Alice’s childhood home after the crush of unpaid bills forces her to leave, taking her mother with her. So the family is now nesting comfortably in their new digs, and that’s when the oddities begin to occur. There really isn’t anything we haven’t seen before – creepy children surface at the drop of a hat, strange noises are heard, and a harmless looking baby-doll that little Ariel found in the yard has begun to speak to her subconsciously, turning her rather nasty at times. As I said earlier, some scares work to a certain degree, and some others fall flat.
As the movie progresses, we learn the meaning for the malicious spirits in the home, and while a conclusion is within reach, it’s attained rather clunkily in style and appearance. Roberts is fantastic in his role of Jonathan. Honestly, I’ve been a fan since the days of Star 80 so in my mind the man can do no wrong. Call it bias, but I call it unflinching support regardless of execution. Even in the most stressful of family emergencies, his character is as cool as the other side of the pillow and plays a beautiful part as the protective father, thus earning a gold star for his consummate work in the film. I was so engrossed in his undertaking that I nearly missed screen veteran Robert Vaughn as the doctor for the elderly Sophia – blink a few times and you’ll miss him too.
In the end, A Cry From Within plays off much more as a tragic drama, regardless of the terrors that it hurls at you, and behind those frights is a sad view of a family gone horribly wrong from its origins. If I’d only had a wish, it would be for the scares to have had more of an impact and the payoff to not have been as lackluster as it was. Worth a one-time watch if you’re hard up for an exhibit of what could have been.
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
