Everto (2016)
Starring Alessandra Spoletini, Allison Schuette, Jonathan Schneider
Directed by Antoine McKnight
Creation is key, but execution is completely a whole other story when it comes to the proper presentation of any film, let alone one that falls into the horror genre. It’s likened to the perfect domino trick – getting the pieces in order is a task in itself, but making sure they all fall uniformly and at the same time, making it look appealing to the eye, takes the work of a skilled craftsman.
In Antoine McKnight’s Everto, we see a very well put together foundation, but the execution fails on way too many levels to give this one an honorable mention.
The story falls like this: While visiting her boyfriend, Skylar (Spoletini) witnesses the brutal murder of her friend; and following her questioning, she manages to overhear a couple of detectives spilling the beans pertaining to a man named Jack Straw, who went missing some years ago – murder suspect? Possibly, and therefore we’ve got a pretty damn decent brick and mortar foundation underneath our feet. So the search is on for Skylar and her boyfriend as they suddenly turn the corner from young lovers to Nancy Drew and one of the Hardy Brothers (if you don’t know whom I’m talking about, look them up) and start their own mini-investigation into just who this Jack Straw is and where he managed to disappear to.
Now, I’m normally all in for a whodunit premise, but PLEASE make sure that the remainder of the exhibition isn’t muddled with endless rabbles of useless dialogue and dead-ended plot paths that will have you questioning the film’s GPS.
What also kills this film are the long, drawn-out scenes and near two-hour runtime. With a trimming of 20 minutes or so, Everto could have been more tightly wound and more intently focused on its end goal. I’ll give praise to McKnight for placing the ball on the tee, but with a mighty swing and a miss on the home run swat, Everto will be taking a place on the bench with a very heavy thud for the later innings.
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
