Sunday, July 25, 2021

LRF NOW Original Film: Come Out


Come Out

Genre: Supernatural/Horror
Director: Pascal Laugier
Writer: Jack Slipter
Cast: Brandon Flynn, Antony Starr, Willa Holland, Maya Hawke, Polly Walker, Medalion Rahimi

Plot: The film begins on a warm summer evening when we see Garreth (Brandon Flynn) and his girlfriend Daisy (Willa Holland) walk into a restaurant holding hands for their anniversary. The couple is very much in love, they have fun and joke at their table, in short, they are having a perfect evening. At one point the small family at the table next to them starts laughing loudly, Daisy turns curious and when she looks at Garreth she finds him kneeling with an engagement ring and asks her to marry her. The girl, embarrassed, gets excited and initially doesn't know what to say but then accepts while all the customers and restaurant staff applaud. At the end of the dinner, as soon as they get into the car, they receive compliments from a portly man (Antony Starr) in a baseball cap who is outside the restaurant smoking a cigarette, the two lovers thank them and leave. Daisy turns for a moment to look at the man but she couldn't see his face because he was in a dimly lit spot. The two arrive at the car, inside there was another gift, a doll. Daisy was in fact a collector and had many in her home. Along the way, she asks if she can be taken to her best friend's apartment, Lindsay (Medalion Rahimi), because she absolutely has to tell him the news. Near the house of Daisy's friend there is an accident between some cars and the girl gets out and starts alone. Garreth kisses her and goes to her house telling her to be careful. Garreth's life is not easy, he has returned to live with his mother Laura (Polly Walker), after his father died, because Laura is suffering from liver cancer and is now in the terminal phase. The next morning he gets up early to go to work, greets his mother and leaves a message for his girlfriend (and then the others in the morning) but he never replies. He also tries to contact Lindsay both by phone and then also by going to her after work but she says she has never seen her the night before. Garreth begins to worry seriously and goes home. Here she finds her mother in tears and the police, Daisy, was found brutally murdered near a garbage can in an alley. The funeral a few days later was heartbreaking and in the evening at home while they are talking, she collapses in her chair and dies of cardiac arrest telling her son "forgive me if I leave you right now". Garreth was left alone, the innocent murder of his girlfriend and the death of his mother had put him in crisis but he decided, also advised by Lindsey, to move to an apartment in another city to try to rebuild his new life.

The new apartment also looked nice but it was almost empty. Garreth befriends his neighbor Tracy (Maya Hawke). She advises her to go and browse in a thrift store to buy something to decorate the house. In the afternoon he goes to the store and buys some things he likes until something catches his eye. It is a doll with a name tag Sybille. It was on a shelf with an Ouija tablet attached to it. Garreth had a strange feeling but he liked it a lot and decided to buy the doll because of his ex girlfriend's passion for those objects. Garreth was forced to buy the Ouija tablet even though he didn't care. Back home, he met Tracy who was returning home and she insisted on seeing what she had purchased. The girl begins to laugh and tease Garreth when he sees the doll. The boy smiles a smile even though the girl realizes that something had made him sick. Garreth takes his things and goes to his house without saying anything more. At dinner time the girl visits Garreth holding a cake and apologizing in case she said something bad. The boy reassured her and told her what had happened to him a few weeks earlier. The girl felt sorry for teasing him. Meanwhile, the girl helped Garreth fix the apartment. The doll had been placed on a shelf in the bedroom while the tablet in the living room. After greeting each other, Garreth took a book and sat in the armchair. At one point while he was closing his eyes in exhaustion, a noise from the room made him wince. Garreth went to see and found the doll on the floor and decided to put it on the bedside table before going to sleep. The next day nothing strange seemed to happen even though he almost had the feeling that the doll always stared at him. During the next night Garreth awoke with a start, but to his terror he realized that he could not move. Suddenly the doll sat on his chest. It seemed like a nightmare, he could neither move nor speak, he could only stare at that doll who stared at him until it was all over. The alarm clock rang and Garreth opened his eyes and everything was back to normal, the doll was on the bedside table and Garreth could move freely. The next night it happened again but this time Garreth was not paralyzed and he managed to take the doll and put it inside the wardrobe and could no longer sleep. Garreth was worried, he thought he had an episode of sleepwalking in which he had taken the doll and put it on his chest.

The next day he found the courage to talk to Tracy, who reassured him. But as long as they talk, the boy realizes that the Ouija tablet has disappeared. The two looked for her but did not find her, she seemed to have totally vanished. The girl, seeing that Garreth seemed to be starting to be upset about these facts, convinced him that she needed a day off from everything and took a long ride to a lake near the town. When he returned Garreth found the oujia tablet in the bathroom and ran to look inside the wardrobe, the doll was not there and found it in a corner of the closet. This time he decided not to say anything to Tracy, took the two objects and put them in a small trunk with a padlock. But the boy began to feel sad for the doll and after two days he could no longer hold the doll in it. The next day he has to start looking for work and decides to put a video camera on the bedroom. When he returns home the doll was where he left it and he immediately starts watching the movie. It seems like everything was normal except that suddenly something scared Garreth so much in the movie, the doll smiled. At this point the boy begins to shake the doll and yell at him until he fainted. When he woke up he found himself sitting with the doll in front of him and the Ouijia tablet and could not move, he was paralyzed like a few days before. Meanwhile, the doll began to change expression and even face. During this process Garreth became weaker and weaker until he fainted again. When he woke up, Garreth saw his body motionless from a strange perspective. When Garreth's body rose to his feet he knew he had ended up inside the doll and the spirit of the doll had taken Garreth's place. The boy began to speak saying .. "Garreth .. with time you will also be able to do some movement and you will also understand how to go out .." and then the doll (with the spirit of Garreth inside) was brought back to thrift shop. A long time later when he couldn't get himself bought by anyone, a man with a baseball cap came in and there was something familiar about him. He tried for the umpteenth time to get into someone's mind and here he stayed a moment and saw only violence and horror. The man stopped and picked it up with a disturbing smile. The next day he found the courage to talk to Tracy, who reassured him. But as long as they talk, the boy realizes that the Ouija tablet has disappeared. The two looked for her but did not find her, she seemed to have totally vanished. The girl, seeing that Garreth seemed to be starting to be upset about these facts, convinced him that she needed a day off from everything and took a long ride to a lake near the town. When he returned Garreth found the oujia tablet in the bathroom and ran to look inside the wardrobe, the doll was not there and found it in a corner of the closet. This time he decided not to say anything to Tracy, took the two objects and put them in a small trunk with a padlock. But the boy began to feel sad for the doll and after two days he could no longer hold the doll in it. The next day he has to start looking for work and decides to put a video camera on the bedroom. When he returns home the doll was where he left it and he immediately starts watching the movie. It seems like everything was normal except that suddenly something scared Garreth so much in the movie, the doll smiled. At this point the boy begins to shake the doll and yell at him until he fainted. When he woke up he found himself sitting with the doll in front of him and the Ouijia tablet and could not move, he was paralyzed as he had been a few days before. Meanwhile, the doll began to change expression and even face. During this process Garreth became weaker and weaker until he fainted again. When he woke up, Garreth saw his body motionless from a strange perspective. When Garreth's body rose to his feet he knew he had ended up inside the doll and the spirit of the doll had taken Garreth's place. The boy began to speak saying .. "Garreth .. with time you will also be able to do some movement and you will also understand how to go out .." and then the doll (with the spirit of Garreth inside) was brought back to thrift shop.

Much later, when she still couldn't get anyone to buy her, a man in a baseball cap walked in and there was something familiar about him. He tried for the umpteenth time to enter someone's mind and here he stayed for a moment and saw only violence and horror. The man stopped and took it in his hand with a disturbing smile saying "how cute ..". In a moment he remembered that the voice was the man turned back from the restaurant he had seen the last night he had been with Daisy. The man's house was dirty and almost bare with minimal furniture and a dark, smelly basement where the doll with Garreth's spirit was placed on top of a shelf. Shortly after, the man brings down a girl who has passed out, gagged and tied up. It then turns out that the man was a crazy serial killer and that was the room where he killed his victims. Garreth now tired after so many months (maybe years) of staying in a doll's body he decided he had to hurry up and do something to leave that damn doll's body and also didn't know what would happen if he could get into the serial killer's body. One rainy evening the killer opened a box and an object caught Garreth's attention. The object was the wedding ring he had given Daisy the night he asked her to marry him, and a tiny tear formed in the doll's eyes.

Seven days later ...
We see Tracy returning to her apartment and the killer grabs her from behind and says "Hi Tracy, I'm back for you ..."




"Come Out feels like a hodge-podge of well-worn horror genre ideas we have all see a million times before. That itself isn't necessarily a deal breaker, but the execution left something to be desired."




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Sleeping Beauties
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