If you happen to prowl the same corners of YouTube as me, this movie should look familiar as the topic of the most recent Jenny Nicholson video, who also gave us Beastly. I watched just enough of the video to determine that it would be worth a watch, and the clear Twilight ripoff nature was an obvious win. Add in the context that the lead actress is also the writer and only 19, that a bunch of the cast are just real life friends of hers, and that she and the lead villain are actually responsible for some of the music in the film, and this movie has passion project written all over it. Shayne Leighton is an auteur film maker.
The plot surrounds the romance between a college student living with her abusive preacher uncle who killed both her parents and in incubus who just rocked into town with his coven of Hot Topic accessory corner soul suckers. Do we get lore of these creatures? Only barely in small drips of information throughout the whole film so it never totally makes sense. Their powers are random and immense including super speed, teleporting, controlling fire, divination, force fields, etc. Is there a linear plot outside of the romance? Mainly just that abusive uncle is abusive until he gets locked away and The Incubus' creator is into him and jealous of the lead. There are a bunch of side characters with incubus-adjacent side plots to pad out the run time. The lead's two human friends hang out with the two side incubi until one is accidentally killed. The bully, who is really on par with all the vertical drama bullies we've been seeing, has so much of her energy depleted that she dies in a car accident. The catch with all this is that the incubi want to spend time around humans because it's sweeter to drain the energy of humans they have some kind of bond with. However, hanging out with the humans makes them feel emotions again, which is intoxicating, so they simultaneously want to drain them more but also don't because it will kill them. The draining seems to be uncontrollable except when the plot needs it to not happen. The film ends with everyone in town killed exact the lead who almost dies until her love interest resurrects her as a soul sucker herself right at the end. Cue the Evanescence-esque credit song.
In addition to the thin plot, this film also has some wonderful confusion built into how scenes are often ended with the main character passing out and awakening in a totally different situation with the explanation, scenes that seem to be a continuation of a previous moment but every is in different clothes, and day and night seeming to be arbitrary. The film did start with the main character musing about the nature of time so maybe this was on purpose? We can only hope. The acting is also that perfect combination of "go girl give us nothing" and "You are tearing me apart Lisa!" with very few actors in between. The over-the-top uncle and the annoying friend who looks like Billy Joe Armstrong are really here to leave no piece of scenery unchewed. It's a good nostalgic time.
Unrelated but when I got in my car after watching this "Drive" by Incubus was playing on the radio. This film is blessed.
Spoon Rating: 5.5
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