The Wretched movie review & film summary (2020)
To be fair: there’s nothing inherently wrong with sad sack marina attendant Ben (John-Paul Howard) or his frustrated attempts at solving the mystery of his creepy amnesiac neighbors and their missing child. Ben’s mostly a drag because co-writer/director duo Brett and Drew Pierce (“Deadheads”) don’t seem to want to develop their gawky hero’s bummer summer—living and working in a dinky tourist town with his estranged dad Liam (Jamison Jones)—beyond precious coming-of-age quirks and uninspired effects-driven horror beats. So while “The Wretched” doesn’t quite live down to its title, the Pierce brothers’ latest also isn’t thoughtful, funny, or disgusting enough to be worth praising either.
Ben’s story is unevenly cut in two: the horror movie portion, which often feels like a watered-down/half-remembered Stephen King adaptation, and the movie’s unpolished and generally unpleasant “Meatballs”-esque teen sex-comedy scenes. Unfortunately, the strongest tie that binds these two parts of “The Wretched” together is a pervasive, non-too-subtle kind of adolescent horniness. Ben is obviously going through some changes, as we see in practically every scene featuring Mallory (Piper Curda), Ben’s flirty love interest, or Abbie (Zara Mahler), Ben’s haunted next-door neighbor. Mallory is a canny, sassy local girl. She’s presented as a welcome alternative to the cartoonishly cliquish popular teenagers that hang out at Liam’s marina in their rich dads’ speedboats. Mallory is also tellingly introduced to viewers in a gross early scene where she over-stresses her favorite Starburst candy flavors: “It’s all about the strawberry and the cherry.” Yikes.
Abbie’s somehow even worse since she, like Mallory, often feels like a collection of cliches of hyper-sexualized femininity: she has tattoos, drinks beer(!), and knows how to gut and clean a deer. Somehow, Abbie still gets possessed by malevolent woodland spirit “The Wretch” (Madelyn Stuenkel). Once that happens, Abbie wanders around in form-fitting clothing (dig that low-cut dress!) and tries to lure both Ben and other young children into her cellar basement. Abbie also has noisy sex with her husband Ty (Kevin Bigley) by a well-lit window, in plain view of Ben and his “Rear Window”-esque binoculars. So I guess she’s really asking for it ... ?
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