Directed by Patrick Roddy
There is no mercy for John, the ex-con. After twenty plus years of prison he finally has a new lease on life, but picking up the pieces won’t be easy. His parole officer is a prick, his landlord is a jerk, and he has been assigned to a repetitive job that will lead to nowhere. At the very least this is the safest way to keep from ending up behind bars … until the nightmares start.
A few weeks after John’s release from the slammer, he starts to awaken from each nightmare missing a part of his body. At first it’s a tooth, then a pinky, and pretty soon larger and more important parts get whisked away in the night. Can John continue his parole if he’s falling apart? Why does a dead woman haunt him? Will no one have mercy on this man?!
In terms of music, there isn’t much. An old blues song plays periodically in the background, but the strongest musical character is the simple piano notes that slither in from time to time. Mercy isn’t trying to be in your face or attempting to beat you over the head with forced atmosphere. It was nice to finally watch an indie movie like this and not think, “Haven’t I heard this song on at least 20 MySpace pages?” Sweet relief!
Mercy has almost no weaknesses. The movie does reach slow spots that seem to drag at times, but that is about it. Yet, even those few snags are almost erased from memory thanks to the brilliant camera work. Someone sure as hell wanted to keep each scene interesting. Nasty close-ups of gore to simple angle shots of stairwells break through even the most monotonous areas of the film.
There’s just not enough good stuff that can be said about Mercy. What at first appeared to be another in the long line of black & white artsy pictures turned out to be a very entertaining and genuinely unsettling entry into our beloved genre. Tonight I sleep with the light on.
4 1/2 out of 5
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