We knew filmmaker Rob Savage who was capable of the best (host) like the worst (dash cam). Unfortunately his bogeyman falls into the second category.
Let’s be honest: the main strength of the Stephen King short story on which The Croque-mitaine is based was its ability to succinctly summarize a chilling story. In a dozen pages, no time for frills, superfluous marginalia, or useless detours; We have therefore limited ourselves to the essentials, namely horror and fear.
But Rob Savage clearly failed to get the gist of it, using King’s story merely as a stepping stone to rejecting a new macabre fable, yes, but mostly lame, even insignificant. Rarely have we experienced a film that is less than 100 minutes long so endlessly.
The American filmmaker therefore quickly moves away from the original story and presents us with a family that has suffered the tragic death of their matriarch. However, its three members – a father and his two daughters – have no time to breathe or mourn as a creature lurking in the shadows is after the youngest of the girls.
series of clichés
The resulting plot is built on well-worn formulas, stumbling over every cliche imaginable, rehashed without the least bit of efficiency or inventiveness. We’ll certainly jump a time or two. But we’ll be back for the right tension. Ditto for the creature – the servant – who is unlikely to haunt moviegoers’ nightmares as its design is unobtrusive and mundane.
Luckily, young actress Sophie Thatcher (known for her role on the series Yellowjackets) saves the furniture with her very convincing, nuanced acting and her apparent complicity with her young co-star Vivien Lyra Blair. This is how she holds the pieces of this terrifying and colorful quilt – sewn with elements borrowed from Ça, Insidieux, Dans le noir, etc. – with an unpleasant warmed-up scent that even the most divine popcorn scent cannot completely mask.
Stephen King deserved better. And his fans too.
The black man ★★
A film by Rob Savage,
With Sophie Thatcher, Chris Messina and Vivien Lyra Blair. On the screen.