Movie Review: 1922 (2017)

    

"Slow burn" is the term used continuously by critics when describing 1922, Zak Hilditch's adaptation of Stephen King's novella featured in Full Dark, No Stars. This is a movie about a farmer (played by Thomas Jane) who conspires with his teenage son to kill his wife. The weight of that guilt puts a burden on each of these characters, their personal lives, and the intimate relationship that develops between them during the 101 minute runtime. The critical consensus can be misleading and biased, but 1922 is a great, yet extremely slow, horror movie which succeeds in creating a lucid, haunting effect. Thomas Jane gives a sinister and manipulative performance and here is a project where Jane has a lot of range with his acting. Perhaps even better in his shadow was Dylan Schmid who has to channel emotional pain far beyond the level someone of his age would be expected to go through. Hilditch's direction is gorgeous; with wide angle landscape shots and fantastic depth in each and every frame. The look and feel of this movie is so impeccable in places, that it's hard to believe there are flaws. 1922 is a great film, but it does bare issues and narrative holes. Getting to that slow burn, the movie is more of a building of tension in order to get Wilfred's character (Jane) to arch. Yet in doing so, the pacing suffers and lags in many places. This is not a boring movie, but the script is dragged out to the point where any meaning is flattened and voided of any possible impact. The movie also contains heavy handed exposition throughout the entire film as Thomas Jane's character Wilf gives a narration. This is one of those elements where viewers may be torn. On one hand the narration provides some background and sets up the lifestyle and culture surrounding this salt-of-the-earth family in the early twenties. But it also means that our understanding of this film, which is a visual phantasm, could not be complete without someone constantly explaining everything to the audience. And it is these two elements that make the movie feel a tad uneven. Don't be misleaded; this is a GREAT horror movie that is very creepy and makes every inch of your skin crawl, but it doesn't payoff instantly. There are no jump scares in this movie, no loud sound effects (sound design was outstanding though), no blatant usage of CGI. This is a type of film that will polarize audiences, as it has polarized your writer. Yet the pros do outweigh the cons which is enough to satisfy even the least schooled Stephen King fans. Overall, 1922 is a slow build, with an emphasis on the human condition, that will polarize and yet never fails to please. Three stars= A-