Z Twists The Creepy Kid Story
You’d be hard pressed to find someone more of a fan of up and coming horror director Brandon Christensen than me, both of his full length feature films are Shudder exclusive and absolutely amazing horror films. They are great examples of “standard american horror” and they really nail a sub-genre that could only be defined as suburban housewife horror but his films are not without their criticisms even from me, a devout Christensen fan.
I cannot ever successfully search the internet and find any of his movies! His first feature film, STILL/BORN brings up 3 other, more obscure films and all because the official title includes the backslash. The same can be said for his latest film and one of May’s Shudder exclusives, Z.
Yeah, Z. One single letter. Good luck searching this thing out on the internet, even if you add the words “Horror movie” to the end of a search you are stuck with pictures of Brad Pitt’s handsome, handsome face.
Petty complaints aside, this, much like Christensen’s first film, is absolutely incredible! The film follows the story of a family of three in the ‘burbs whose son has an imaginary friend. All starts out pretty normal, the young boy, Josh (Jett Klyne), plays with his imaginary friend, Z the way a kid normally does. Play fighting with swords, playing “the floor is lava” and biting other kids at school and cursing at them.
Oh no, this sounds like some evil Drop Dead Fred type stuff, time to send the kid to a psychiatrist!
They do, but when the young boy mentions Z to the psychiatrist, he becomes concerned for the young boy. You see, the mother had to deal with the suicide of her father at a young age and is currently dealing with the death of her sickly mother for whom she was caring for. The psychiatrist suggests that the young boy has created Z to cope with not having friends so they suggest the parents play with the boy or set up a play date. There’s just one problem with that. Mom and Dad don't really seem interested in playing with the little boy and none of the other mom’s want the cussing, biting little boy around. After asking every mother in the little suburban enclave, his mother Liz (Keegan Connor Tracy) finally finds a play-date for her young son. But he throws his playmate off a balcony…
Ok, ok, ok. Maybe I should have given a SPOILER ALERT for that one, but let me be honest for a moment. The freaky little kid is not the story here. Yeah, spoiler alert friends, you have been bamboozled by the creative team from Z. They give you the entire first act full of creepy eyes in shadows, quick glimpses of the freakish Z monster and ominous looks from the little boy to trick you into thinking the story was about Z and the little boy, but it’s not. It’s about the mother, and not breaking promises.
What kind of promises may you ask? Well I don't want to spoil the movie for you but all I can say is if you are a little girl who has an imaginary friend named Z and you promise that you will grow old with him, and get married, and have a bunch of Z babies with him you damn well better keep your promises. If you don’t, said imaginary friend will murder your husband, burn your house down and force you to abandon your child and play house with an imaginary friend. Doomed you will be to a life of cutting the crust off of Z’s Pb&J sandwiches and making sure you only pour him 2% milk.
I really wish I was making that last part up but that is the honest to god’s truth of how this movie pivots for the 3rd act. You see, Z was the mother’s imaginary friend. She realizes this by watching old home movies and then conjuring the imaginary beast while she is soaking in the bathtub repeating the phrase “Imagine Z” over and over again until the freak monster appears in the bathtub with her. After Z murders her husband and burns her house down she moves back into her childhood home and begins an abusive relationship with her imaginary friend. He forces her to play hide and go seek, if she doesn’t pour the correct milk to go with his crustless PB&J sandwiches he slams his hand on the table and scolds her like one of those Hallmark/Lifetime movie husbands. Worst of all, if she tries to talk to anyone outside of the house, or dress like an adult, he threatens to murder them and her.
The whole thing is very interesting in the way it’s executed. You never really see Z except for in some quick glimpses used for jump scares. Majority of the time, he’s camera tricks. The camera will focus on a glass of milk, then turn towards Liz and when it goes back to the glass of milk it’s half empty. It’s all this very interesting theater of the mind type of horror where Z is just pounding footsteps, slamming doors and curtains moving on their own with Liz reacting to it all. Huge round of applause to Keegan Connor Tracy for her superior acting in this one, her character is the only one who sees Z and her ability to express fear of what you, the viewer, cannot see is absolutely amazing.
Overall, I have no complaints about this one other than the silly, non-search engine optimized name. A great creepy kid haunt that transforms into a bizarre and unique psychological thriller. Some viewers might not like the ending and I will admit, it falls a bit flat and seems hurried, but a bad final 2 minutes doesn’t distract from the amazing 81 minutes prior. Overall 5 out 5 and would work as a fantastic double feature with either Christensen’s first film, Still/Born or with Daneil isn’t Real for an imaginary friend double header. Check out now!
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