‘We Need To Do Something’ Has The Best Jump Scare of 2021
Mary Beth McAndrews
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Spoilers ahead for We Need To Do Something
Jump scares and horror have a complicated relationship. They’re obviously used to get an immediate, physical reaction from the audience. But they’ve gotten a bad reputation as films have utilized the technique for cheap scares. Yet when used the right way, jump scares are an artform. Sean King O’Grady’s 2021 film We Need To Do Something is an example of doing just that.
The film is based on Max Booth III’s novella of the same name. We Need To Do Something starts with a family of four heading into their bathroom during a bad storm. The family consists of neon-pink-haired Melissa (Sierra McCormick), her younger brother Bobby (John James Cronin), her mother Diane (Vinessa Shaw), and her alcoholic father Robert (Pat Healy). Right off the bat, the family bickers and needles at each other, setting a tone of dysfunction and animosity; there’s more than one storm raging in the film. A tornado touches down and a fallen tree has trapped them inside the bathroom. As the hours and days pass with no rescue in sight, the family realizes that something more sinister is brewing just outside their door.
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We Need To Do Something’s jump scare is set up as an innocent enough moment as a dog is heard sniffing right outside the door. Bobby gets excited, thinking it’s their dead dog Spot, somehow resurrected in the wake of the storm. He naively sticks his hand through the crack in the door, petting the supposed dog. According to him, whatever he’s touching feels and acts like a dog. But we never see the pup. We just hear sniffing and the sound of licking. Melissa then takes a turn saying hello to their new friend, petting him and asking, “who’s a good boy?” Then, suddenly, a booming male voice responds, “I’m a good boy.” The thing then grabs her arm and tries to pull her through the gap in the door. Unlucky for the creature, Melissa rips out its tongue instead.
It’s the stuff of nightmares, a similarly hellish situation to the urban legend “humans lick back,” where a person getting licked by their cat realizes they sure don’t have a cat. The innocence of finding comfort in an animal during a time of turmoil is made evil and horrifying. Whatever is lurking outside the bathroom knows how to manipulate humans and has some kind of intelligence.
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This jump scare also alerts us that something worse than a storm has brought destruction to this home and neighborhood. Previously, the family of four believed they’d be rescued soon. But this voice is a flag emblazoned with the words, “give up hope.” Without We Need To Do Something showing us whatever horrors lay outside this tiny room, our imaginations run wild. What could such a monster look like? Could it look like a dog with simply a human voice? Or is it something much nastier that loves to toy with its prey? Regardless, such a moment leaves both the characters and viewer alike rattled, on edge. Any doubts about what might be going on have been squelched.
Oh, and as an added bonus, that male voice? It’s none other than Ozzy Osborne in perhaps one of the best horror cameos of the year. His presence is also felt at the film’s end when Robert bites the head off of a rattlesnake ala Osborne’s own biting-off-a-bat-head stunt. Got to love a subtle heavy metal influence flowing throughout We Need To Do Something.
While We Need To Do Something is tonally uneven, there is no doubting how it’s able to get under your skin. Its use of jump scares jolts the viewer out of any complacency with the direction of the story. With every sequence, with the exception of a few flashbacks, taking place in one small room, it can be hard to diversify the scares. Moments like this showcase O’Grady and Booth’s creativity in taking such a concept to the next level.
We Need To Do Something is now streaming on Hulu.
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