Written and directed by John Ross. Starring Sara Wolfkind, Callan Farris, Shannyn Sossamon, Usman Ally, Tate Moore, Alona Tal and Joel Ezra Hebner.
Plot: a teen girl and her little brother must stop a terrifying internet meme brought to life.
While not a popular movie, DJ and I seem to feel that some people didn’t really get the point or even the whole story. For instance, I read an article discussing the ending of the movie and the writer did not get it right. The article said that the ending was ambiguous and suggested that certain characters may have been hallucinating. We didn’t get that at all. But let me tell you the beginning before I spoil the end.
The movie opens with Melinda Jaynes (Tal) locking her son into his room because she thinks he’s been hurting himself. Her son is seeing the Grimcutty though and it’s the Grimcutty that’s been hurting him. And for some reason, this makes him stab Melinda. A little later on, Asha (Wolfkind), a teenage girl who makes ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) videos and shares them online, is trying to deal with her overbearing parents.
Her mother, Leah (Sossamon) and her father, Amir (Ally), have instituted a phone-free outing once a week. She hates this even though she insists she’s not addicted to her phone. Then, one night Asha is making toast and the Grimcutty comes in her house. Her parents think she’s lying and after finding out the Grimcutty is an internet monster, they take all electronics away from her and her brother, Kamran (Farris). Of course, Kamran has an extra laptop they don’t know about and Asha goes so far as to steal her phone back. Now, maybe it’s cause we’re older now, but we blame the young people in this a bit because of their nonchalant attitudes. However, it may be because we’re young at heart that we also blame the parents for being overprotective and a bit condescending.
When the Grimcutty comes after Asha again and she gets cut up, her parents assume she’s cutting herself. They don’t listen. They don’t even want her to go to school anymore. Asha ends up using Kamran’s computer skills to find out where the Grimcutty originated. Then, with a fellow student’s – Cassidy (Moore) – help, she finds out about Melinda Jaynes, who is a Mommy Blogger and blogged about the Grimcutty before anyone else did. And now, for the spoil:
******SPOILER ALERT******
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While Asha’s out, Leah and Amir begin to worry about her, then the Grimcutty finds her at a party. When Kamran’s on his computer looking up the Grimcutty, Leah and Amir worry about him, then the Grimcutty attacks him. Asha starts to believe that because Melinda blogged about it, her own worry brought the Grimcutty into life. She goes to see Melinda and the Mommy Blogger denies ever having written about the Grimcutty. Because she lies to her, Asha decides to break into her house. There she finds Melinda’s son locked in a closet and seriously weak. Having tracked her whereabouts, Leah arrives at the house, too.
Asha tells Leah what she found in Melinda’s house. At first Leah doesn’t believe her, but then she remembers that Asha is not a liar. When she hears Melinda’s son screaming inside, she bumrushes Melinda and sees the son suspended in air. Really the Grimcutty has him, but Leah can’t see it. However, she has now started to believe. Other stuff happens and Leah shares her new knowledge with Amir. Amir doesn’t hear her though and insists that the kids are wrong. Since he’s still worrying hardcore, the Grimcutty comes after Asha again. This time, Amir sees his own daughter suspended in the air and he realizes that his family was right – his own fear is creating the Grimcutty. When he calms down, Asha drops to the ground. The Grimcutty has disappeared.
The message: believe in the people you love. Fear created the monster, trust drove the monster away. This is exactly the ended DJ had hoped for. We were both so pleasantly surprised. The brother/sister relationship was so well done and we always enjoy that. The Grimcutty was freaky and moved quite horrifically at times. It was original, had great rules, was realistic and is completely rewatchable. The movie had a gifted cast, a nice script, exemplary direction and a praiseworthy story. We loved this movie. That’s all there is to it.
My score: 82. DJ’s score: 87.
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