‘Latency’ Review: This Substandard Techno-Terror Film Is D.O.A.
There is a great deal of promise in the setup for James Croke’s Latency. The film is in the vein of the ‘90s horror thriller Brainscan. It revolves around gaming technology that uses biofeedback and communicates with the user’s brain to reduce response time. The flick frequently blurs the lines between the real world and virtual space. Unfortunately, Latency is void of compelling characters, relies too heavily on melodrama, and never reaches the point of being immersive.
Latency follows Hana (Sasha Luss), an agoraphobic game tester who used to be one of the top gamers in the world. When a new piece of hardware shows up at her door, she is keen to check it out before the product goes to market. However, the new equipment comes with some jarring glitches that quickly interfere with Hana’s reality.
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The single biggest problem I have with Latency is that the film far too frequently confines the action to the virtual world, ensuring the stakes stay as low as possible. Time and again, something scary happens, only for Croke to reveal the occurrence to be a manifestation of the gaming space where Hana spends most of her time. The line between the game world and reality is constantly blurred. However, the film predictably returns to normal almost every time Hana gets lost in a virtual nightmare. By about the third time that happened, I lost all interest. If it’s painfully obvious that the majority of what she’s experiencing has no bearing on her real-world experience, there’s little reason to care. That’s not a great strategy for reeling in the audience.
The film ends on an ambiguous note that leaves plenty of doubt regarding whether or not the action is unfolding in some form of reality or if it’s another trick perpetrated by the hardware she’s testing. The conclusion is properly downbeat. But it’s too ambiguous and too little too late.
The pacing is another serious issue. Nothing of particular interest or consequence happens for the first 45 minutes. We spend much of that time with Hana and her friend Jen (Alexis Ren). Neither character is particularly compelling. Writer/director Croke lays the groundwork to take Hana’s character arc to an interesting place but never delivers. There is a subplot with Hana trying to connect with a young girl who seems to be a symbol of her childhood trauma. But that’s never fully explored and the young girl eventually vanishes from the narrative without any closure, making her inclusion completely pointless.
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There are melodramatic references to Hana’s traumatic upbringing that help us conceptualize why she is the way she is. But when she finally confronts her agoraphobia, the line between reality and the virtual world is, once again, blurred and she lands back in her apartment as if she never left.
The film could have used Hana’s condition to give her a more compelling arc and maybe even say something about the crippling power of unresolved trauma. But from my perspective, the picture has very little to say about anything.
A motion picture doesn’t necessarily have to have something profound to say. Just being effectively entertaining would be enough to warrant a watch. But Latency is a slog to sit through. It drags on endlessly and expects us to be shocked and amazed each time Hana confronts a virtual entity with malevolent intent that probably isn’t even really there. Or maybe it is? It doesn’t really matter after a certain point. By the time we realize there may be some credibility to what she’s experiencing, the viewer has likely pegged her as the girl who cried wolf.
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As if all of that wasn’t off-putting enough, the film is filled with clunky exposition that took me out of the narrative over and over. In one scene, Hana needlessly says “Hi, Dad” to a stack of pictures that are quite clearly of her late father. She also speaks her inner monologue out loud when it makes no sense for her to do so. The only reason she’s saying what she’s saying is to keep the viewer in the loop. But there are far better ways to help us get inside her head.
Making matters worse, a lot of the information Hana is sharing isn’t necessary. Hana tells herself that Jen lives in the building, upstairs. But that much is obvious to anyone who is paying attention. Contextual cues tell us Jen lives in the building. So, for her to say that out loud, for no reason other than to clue the viewer in, feels insulting.
All in all, Latency never justifies its own existence. The film has minimal entertainment value and very little to say about the core themes explored. That’s a shame because there is plenty of potential in the setup. If you’re keen to check the flick out, you can find Latency on VOD via Lionsgate now.
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‘Latency'
Summary
‘Latency’ is slow, unduly melodramatic, and the characters are bland as can be.
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