Everlasting (2016)
Ari Drew
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Starring Valentina de Angelis, Adam David, Elisabeth Röhm
Directed by Anthony Stabley
Recently nominated for Best Feature at the Crystal Palace International Film Festival in London, Anthony Stabley’s independent feature debut, Everlasting, is looking to make waves as it rides into the festival circuit in 2016. Though not a traditional horror film, Everlasting has reasonably generated buzz within the horror community thanks to its murder-mystery casing and a bevy of notable appearances from genre favorites, including Pat Healy (Cheap Thrills), Michael Massee (At the Devil’s Door), and Bai Ling (The Crow).
Beyond these enticing selling points, however, audiences will be surprised to find that Stabley’s film ultimately offers quite a bit more substance than first meets the eye as well — providing resonant drama and suspense that recalls haunting indie fare such as 2006’s The Dead Girl and Brick.
In Everlasting, a teenage filmmaker named Matt (David) finds his life thrown into an unsettling state when he receives an ominous package containing a DV tape that shows the murder of his girlfriend, Jessie (de Angelis). Still reeling from her untimely passing, Matt decides at this point to memorialize the girl he loved in all of her spirited, but faulted glory; he begins making a film of his own that recounts the weeks leading up to Jessie’s death in an effort to find resolution and peace. His decision is also fueled by a more dangerous motive, however: He plans to use the film to document his trip back to Los Angeles — the site of Jessie’s murder — to confront her killer.
As he makes his way from Colorado to California, recalling his last days with Jessie and the course of events that led her to death, Matt recklessly moves closer to peril as his thirst for the truth grows greater with each passing day. The story is told through a mix of homemade footage, real-time sequences, and news clips, with Matt guiding the film through ever-present narration.
Despite what one might expect from the premise, Everlasting is not quite a revenge film, nor is it truly a crime thriller; the carefully guided “student film” medium through which Matt and Jessie’s story is told does not quite allow it to be fully either in the traditional sense. What we have here is a simply executed — albeit very dark — drama that follows two teenagers whose dreams are tragically snuffed out as they collide with the merciless reality of a big city where good intentions and a sense of youthful invincibility are not enough to survive. The film’s emotional sensibilities are punctuated with moments of suspense and discomfort as it ventures into Jessie’s damaged nature and Matt’s emotionally distraught state as he seeks to find resolve in his own journey after her death.
The film includes memorable supporting turns from Healy and Massee, as well as a heartbreaking performance from Elisabeth Röhm as Jessie’s mother, but Everlasting is primarily driven by its two young leads–namely, the sensitive but passionately resolute Matt. Adam David impresses here as he carries the film, imbuing our narrator with a mix of reckless determination and wide-eyed fragility that is always believable. Valentina de Angelis is beguilingly charismatic as the doomed Jessie, a character who is equal parts pitiable and frustrating; she embodies that girl many of us have known in our formative years who emerges from a dysfunctional upbringing with a life outlook that is all at once bleak and defiant, yet somehow naively assured. She is impassioned, but emotionally fragmented, questioning motives of those that love her more than the motives of strangers who promise fame and fortune. Both stars genuinely connect with a radiant chemistry, establishing an emotional core to the film that effectively amplifies the heartbreaking end of their fateful path.
Everlasting‘s primary focus on the young couple makes for a journey that feels very authentic in its explorations of love and loss, though its “amateur filmmaker” framing does stumble along the way. There are times where Matt’s expository voice-over grows clunky, sometimes delivered with a tonal incongruity that almost immediately lifts the tension established by a previous scene. The differentiation between scene sources gets somewhat blurry as well; while Stabley does a fine job of establishing Matt as the sole perspective, it becomes difficult to tell whether we are watching a real-time memory or documented footage of the two. At times, it is also unclear as to how some of the real-time moments would actually play out in Matt’s film.
To its ultimate credit though, Stabley’s use of home video and third-party clips mostly serves in establishing a chillingly voyeuristic air; some of these are quite horrific and push the film closer to thriller territory, like flashes of crime scenes and blurred surveillance images of the killer. Elsewhere, the film effectively captures uncomfortably private moments shared between Matt and Jessie, echoing bits of Larry Clark or Gregg Araki in the process, albeit to more toned down degrees. The most notable of these is a scene in which the couple has sex on a bedroom floor and Jessie’s penchant for masochism comes to light. At this point, Stabley captures an instance that feels intrusive and even inappropriate, proving that the film is most viscerally compelling when it taps into those moments that you feel like you’ve stumbled upon without warning. The scenes with the greatest emotional impact are elevated by the film’s soundtrack, which is a mix of scored pieces (courtesy of Scott Gordon and David Levita) and youthful alternative fare that mirrors the seemingly dichotomous tones of despair and romance that permeate the story.
While Everlasting progressively feels as if it is ramping up to an explosive final act as Matt comes closer to facing the killer, the film actually takes a curious turn in the last 15 minutes; I will only say that Stabley’s approach is ultimately more subdued than would be expected. This divisive resolution will be make-or-break for many, and I would be lying if I said that I didn’t find myself wanting more in a general sense from the film as far as momentum goes. Further exploration of the seedier side of Los Angeles would have been welcome as well, as I would have liked to witness more of Jessie’s descent firsthand, though it may have ultimately been difficult to portray given Matt’s cemented role as the narrator. While I appreciated the authenticity established between Jessie and Matt, I also would have loved to see more complex aspects of their relationship explored, focusing on other ways in which Jessie’s background has affected their relationship beyond the sexual element.
Everlasting ends up working best when viewed as a melancholy genre hybrid with an unexpected silver lining. It will likely fare best with those who go in without pre-established expectations of the kind of film they think it will or should be, though its trailer — wrought with creepy imagery — may admittedly make this a bit difficult. In actuality, the horror here is incidental, as Matt’s decision to create his own film stems from his desire to immortalize Jessie’s spirit and their love, and not necessarily the gruesome end of her life. This brings reason to the fact that we never see certain scenes of violence played out in full, though this decision will surely irk some genre fans who would prefer to see Everlasting delve much deeper into its snuff film trappings. The film’s deliberate decision to withhold such scenes is made with clear intent: Stabley seeks to make a greater statement about the enduring power of love and its ability to withstand and transcend tragedy above all.
Though sometimes rough around the edges, Everlasting remains an emotionally striking film about death that ultimately chooses to celebrate life. It is a curious decision to see a film so filled with doom and gloom aim to give the audience hope in the end, but the writer-director’s sentiments here are most admirable for this reviewer. Though they may not resonate with some of the more hardened genre fans, they make for a pleasingly subversive experience that is worth the ride.
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
