The Pierce Brothers wrote and directed The Wretched, a supernatural horror film released in 2019. On July 19, 2019, it premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival, and on May 1, 2020, it was released in select theaters, primarily drive-in theaters, via Premium VOD. COVID-19 has made it the first picture since Avatar to top the box office for six weekends in a row. The Wretched earned $1.8 million in the United States and Canada and $2.5 million in other areas, totaling $4.3 million globally.
The story follows Ben, a teen who is dealing with his parents’ tumultuous divorce by residing with his father in a beach town. Ben meets the eccentric Mallory, who is, of course, the love interest, and life with Dad is not all horrible. The fact that a body-possessing witch looks to be lurking around the area, and it could have taken over gorgeous neighbor woman Abbie, puts a damper on the whole thing. What follows is cheerful, though derivative, a mashup of films like Rear Window (1954), Fright Night (1985), and Supernatural, with plenty of jumps scares, fantastic creature effects, and a gamely over-the-top third act.
Based on 110 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes has given The Wretched a 75% approval rating. “The Wretched” stirs up a savory blend of witch-in-the-woods horror ingredients that should leave genre fans eager for a second helping from writer-directors Brett and Drew T. Pierce, according to the website’s critics consensus. The Wretched is a welcome diversion from the plethora of zombie, vampire, and werewolf films. Let us see how it stacks up against the limited number of witch movies that are currently accessible.
Something wicked wants inside – The Wretched (2020)
It starts in 1985, Megan (a young teenager) goes to the Gambels residence to babysit their daughter. She finds a creature with the face of the mother feeding off of their daughter, Ashley. As she tries to escape, Mr. Gambel purposely shuts the door of the basement locking her inside with the creature. We hear an ominous scream and a strange sign on the door.
The next part of the movie might make you feel like you missed something as we cut to the present time that starts off rather normally. However, the flashback serves its purpose making one feel a little chill and sit tight with anticipation of what will happen next. Ben Shaw, our main character, an affable teenage boy, comes to live with his dad while his parents are in the middle of a divorce.
When Ben starts working for his father at the marina, he meets his co-worker Mallory. During the shift, he sees his father, Liam, kissing a co-worker. We see the conflicting emotions he feels immediately. He feels hurt to see his father moving on before things are over but he tries to act like an adult about it by asking to meet her; telling Liam that he is happy for him.
In another part of town, Liam’s neighbor Abbie is on a trail with her son where they get lost. Dillon finds a tree with the same symbol we saw on the Gambel’s door. Dillion hears Abbie’s voice calling him first gently and then demanding but before he can get tempted into going inside the tree Abbie comes and finds him. Later that night, they bring home a buck that they hit on the road. Abbie thinks it would be a good idea to clean up the buck and cook it. However, they get disgusted when its insides fall out of its body and leave it as it is. That seems to have been the mistake because, in the dead of the night, something crawls out of its body.
Ben hears strange noises on his roof and around the house in the middle of the night and decides to investigate it. He follows the sound to a hole in Abbie’s house but all he finds is an animal. He does see a glimpse of the witch on the porch but Abbie’s husband turns on the porch light and asks him to leave.
The next day, Ben finds Dillon at the harbor for a sailing lesson and befriends him. He makes him promise to come to him in case he sees anything strange or suspicious. Later in the night, Abbie looks in the baby monitor and finds her infant son, Sam (Dillon’s brother), has disappeared. Instead of the baby, there is a bundle of sticks. Immediately, she is dragged under the crib by the witch. Shortly after that, Ben notices her walking into the forest holding the child.
Dillon finds his mother behaving strangely during the day. In the evening, Ben comes home to a scared Dillon hiding in his bedroom. He asks Ben to not let his mother in when she comes looking for the boy and threatens him. Ty, Dillon’s father, comes and takes Dillon home. Dillon tells his father about his mother acting strange but Ty dismisses it saying his mother has always been weird.
The next day, Dillion doesn’t show up for his sailing lesson which concerns Ben so he goes to check on him. However, Ty denies ever having a son in the first place. He also finds the same symbol seen in the beginning under the doormat of Abbie’s house.
Abbie later says something in Ty’s ear making it bleed after which he seems to be possessed. Then, we see her taking a shower and her body seems to be decaying in multiple places. The visual effects of the body’s possession are actually phenomenal. The color palette is very well constructed that leaves you with a creepy feeling down your spine.
Ben gets suspicious and starts researching the photograph which leads him to find out about the witch who possesses individuals and feeds on the forgotten. He confides in Mallory but she doesn’t take him seriously and slips a taunting note under Abbie’s door instead.
Abbie responds by putting the same taunting note under his doorstep. He goes into his cellar and finds a picture of the family with Ty’s picture scratched out. He calls Mallory to tell his new discovery when the picture changes to one of Mallory and her sister Lily. However, Mallory seems to have forgotten about Lily by then.
Ben rushes to save Lily but he is too late. When he returns, he finds out that his father has reported him missing. Ben tries to explain the paranormal activities that have happened so far but it is dismissed and he is accused of being on drugs. Ben talks to Sara, Liam’s girlfriend when he notices the flowers decaying around her indicating that she has been possessed by the witch. He tries to attack the witch but ends up hurting Sara instead.
That leads to his arrest by an officer in whose ears Sara had already whispered. Ben tries to tell Liam and asks him to look in the cellar. Right before he leaves for the police station, he decides to listen to Ben and checks his cellar and his neighbors.
It was Liam’s smartest move, I feel because he finds a shrine and pictures of families with faces crossed out in Abbie’s cellar along with the dead bodies of Abbie and Ty. During that time, Ben is trying to fend for himself while the possessed officer tries to drown him. Thankfully, a dog attacks the officer giving Ben just enough time to save himself and go rescue his father.
The next sequence is the most intense piece of horror cinematography and it keeps you on the edge throughout. One can’t really tear their eyes away from the screen as Ben rescues his father and a brother (whom he seems to have forgotten about giving a glimpse of the witch’s power) and Mallory’s sister as well.
Liam arrives just as Ben is rescuing Nathan and Lily and drives his car into the witch. Unfortunately, they are preoccupied with Liam’s injuries and are unable to permanently eliminate the witch. Following that, Ben and Nathan are on their way back to their mother’s house.
While recovering from the witch’s attack, Liam decides to stay with his brother. Before departing to provide sailing lessons, Ben and Mallory kiss farewell and she places a flower in his hair. Ben notices the fake flower, signaling that the witch has now taken possession of Mallory, who is alone with her three children.
The film has enough hedonistic delights to provide an above-average refresh on the scary potential of an ecosystem that fights back against its oblivious residents, right down to an unnerving ending that implies the story isn’t over yet. As in the original “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” one person witnesses a terrifying threat to humanity and, as a result, sounds like a psychopath. While “Body Snatchers” has a clumsy happy ending, “The Wretched” understands why that tacked-on ending didn’t make sense and goes a creepier approach. That feels just right, and it aids in setting the correct tone for an uneven business before the final cut to black. “The Wretched” doesn’t break any new ground, but it does have an unmistakable sense of timelessness.
Boo Hag Mythical Creature Explored
The first glimpse of the Hag is that of a rotting human woman devouring a child. The Hag’s desire to devour children is plainly demonstrated in her introduction, and she does so in a cryptic manner. Unfortunately, the audience is left in the dark about Hag’s origins, why she desires to devour children and how far and deep her abilities go. The Hag’s powers are on display throughout the entire movie, the main problem of which is that those powers are neither implicitly nor explicitly explained sufficiently to fully understand them.
When asked where did the inspiration for The Wretched come from, the Pierce Brothers said: ”We had the itch to do a new interpretation of the witch myth and build a new set of rules, we wanted to do our version of the witch”. “We wanted a unique creature design for The Wretched that would scare the hell out of the audience,” Pierce said.
“We looked to existing mythologies from across the world and incorporated elements from Black Annis and the Boo Hag.” Boo Hag, also known as Boo Hag Mimicry, is a mythical creature from the folklore of South Carolina’s Gullah culture. An expression sometimes used in South Carolina is “don’t let de hag ride ya.” This expression may come from the Boo Hag legend.
The Hag’s powers are gradually revealed after the introduction, beginning with the Hag imitating Abbie’s (the film’s “strange neighbor”) voice in an attempt to lure her kid into its lair, which is a tree hollow—power number one. The second ability she possesses is the ability to magically hitch a ride in an animal carcass to follow her victims to their homes.
The Hag’s third ability is to transform into a shadow, which renders her invisible and silent. Her fourth and most powerful ability—and the first of her three major abilities—is the ability to possess her victims and disguise herself in their flesh, which is why she is referred to as the Slip-Skin Hag in this witch film.
Her fifth ability is the ability to make some people forget about her kid victims. She can cause what appears to be hypnotic amnesia in certain people. The Hag does not routinely use this ability. She can make Ben forget his own sibling, but not the neighbor’s child, for example.
This is an excellent example of her abilities being either overly complicated or poorly conveyed on screen. Her sixth ability is the ability to take possession of other people’s brains and force them to carry out her directives. This is her third significant ability, and she employs it sporadically. She can influence the thoughts of a few people, but not her main adversary, Ben.
Boo Hags, according to tradition, are vampire-like creatures. Unlike vampires, they survive by consuming the breath rather than the blood of their victims. They are red and they have no skin. To hide their presence, they will steal a victim’s skin and wear it as clothing for as long as it lasts. Before they go riding, they will remove and hide this skin.
When a hag decides a victim is acceptable for riding, she will usually enter the house through a small crack, gap, or hole. The hag will then take a position over the sleeping victim and begin sucking their breath. This act renders the victim powerless and causes a deep dream-like state in the sufferer.s
According to legend, the hag prefers to keep the victim alive so that she can use their energy from time to time. If the victim fights back, the hag may take their skin and leave them to suffer. The hag flies away after draining the victim’s energy, as they must be in their skin before dawn or be trapped without skin forever. When the victim first wakes up, they may feel short of breath, but they are mostly exhausted.
When it came to creating not only the creature but also the approach to blending horror and folklore, the director drew inspiration from one of our favorite comic book writers. “We were inspired by Mike Mignola’s stunning drawings, which felt like they were plucked from a fairy tale while remaining grounded in reality at the same time. “We followed the same rule in how we chose to show The Wretch in the film.” “‘Less is more has always been what makes Mignola’s artwork so well, and we followed the same approach in how we chose to present The Wretch in the film.”
Why should you watch The Wretched?
The Pierce Brothers have ensured that one gets immersed in the story and relates to the many emotions this young boy experiences due to the divorce and being a teenager in general. It is a rather holistic film that provides a rollercoaster of emotions, and of course, a witch. It instills a fear of well-being for all the characters in the viewers as well as a feeling of affinity with Ben. His do-gooder nature enraptures you into the story and makes you sympathize with him throughout.
The Wretched is holistic also in the sense that it provides a complete story even if a little rough at the edges. We see relationships being built between Ben and Mallory, the working of their town, and cute little children being rescued while you are at the edge of your seat. The Wretched proves to be an excellent witch watch.