Sunday, April 11, 2021

LRF NOW Original Film: Enchained


Enchained
Genre: Thriller
Director: Oz Perkins
Writer: Billy Cruder
Cast: Finn Jones, Francesca Eastwood, Robbie Amell, Helen McCrory, Kim Coates, Tim Kang, Megan Mullally, Burn Gorman

Plot: The film starts in a gym where a group of friends are having a basketball game. In the last take of the game Jeff, a young lawyer (Finn Jones) injures his ankle but despite this fact his team wins the game. After taking a shower, Jeff and his best friend Robbie (Robbie Amell) say goodbye to the other friends and leave the gym and head to the car. At one point they hear a girl asking for help, Jeff and Robbie run to help her and find the girl being attacked by a sinister looking man dressed in black with scissors. Jeff engages in a brief fight with the man and despite a minor back injury manages to put him on the run. Before leaving, the man warns Jeff by saying "You don't know what trouble you're getting into, man." The girl thanks the two and says that her name is Miranda (Francesca Eastwood) and that the man who was attacking her is Matthew (Kim Coates), her ex-boyfriend, violent and possessive of her. Miranda is desperate and in tears says she is alone with Matthew and because she has no home to stay in. Jeff and Robbie try to comfort her and eventually Jeff invites her to spend the night in her apartment because it is empty. Robbie winks at his friend and whispers that Miranda is a beautiful girl. Miranda accepts the offer and hugs Jeff tightly. Miranda gets in the car with the two boys. Arriving at Jeff's apartment, Robbie greets them and goes to his house. While Jeff prepares tea, Miranda asks Jeff if she can read his hand and Jeff accepts with curiosity for this request. The girl reads Jeff's hand and guesses everything she says is about Jeff's life. The boy asks laughing if she's a sorceress and Miranda says "maybe" with a scary look and then laughs, causing Jeff to laugh too. After a while Jeff prepares the girl's bed and tells her that if she needs anything she will find it on the sofa. The girl accepts her, but first she tells him to lie down on the bed for a moment, she has to repay for the help she gave her with Matthew and she tells Jeff to lie down another one. The girl closes her eyes and after saying a few words in an incomprehensible language she runs her hands on Jeff's ankle and back, where she was hurt. A moment later the pain magically disappeared. Following this Jeff has a special and unstoppable attraction for Miranda and they spend the night together. During the night he has a nightmare where he is stabbed in the heart multiple times by Matthew. When they wake up they seem already in love and Jeff decides to throw a party and introduce Miranda to all of his friends. During the party, the guests are all fascinated by the nice young girl, except Jeff's secretary, Gladys (Megan Mullally), who sees Jeff as a son and tries to warn the boy that the situation is strange and has a bad feeling. For example, she sees Miranda taking the chicken out of the oven with her bare hands. The party is a great success and all people see Jeff and Miranda as the perfect couple.

The next day, in the office, there is a woman, Mrs. White (Helen McCrory) who threatens Jeff to return Miranda to him otherwise he will regret it and leave quietly. Jeff calls Miranda and asks if he knows Mrs. White and Scared Miranda says "they found me .." and turns off the phone immediately. After these words he decides to leave but is blocked by his boss who tells him that he cannot leave like this. The two argue and Jeff punches his head. Jeff is suspended even though Gladys comes to her rescue trying to bring peace between the two.

When Jeff returns home, Miranda appears to have vanished into thin air and she unsuccessfully engages the police. He is joined by investigator Lee (Tim Kang), who reveals that a series of people dressed in black and bloody murders of burned people with mysterious symbols on their chests have occurred in the city. Jeff notices Matthew's figure near the murders in some photographs and Lee gives Jeff his phone number. Jeff starts consulting books on the occult and is chased and haunted by satanic whispers and creepy laughter and starts seeing men dressed in black everywhere. At one point he receives a phone call from Miranda and asks for an appointment in a safe place. The two meet and Jeff sees that the necklace Miranda is wearing has the same symbol featured in the photos shown by Lee. Miranda, in tears, tells him that she was part of a satanic sect and begs Jeff to protect her from the human sacrifice that would have taken place on the first winter solstice. Jeff points out to the girl the date is immini. She also says that calling the police would be useless because the cult has tools that can control the minds of other people and therefore may have infiltrated the police as well.

Shortly after returning home, suspicious noises are heard, doors begin to slam on their own and satanic voices are heard calling Miranda's name. At a certain point the light disappears and we see many people who have surrounded the house, who have their hands resting on the window panes and begin to clap their hands on them. At one point the windows explode and then Miranda starts reciting some magic formulas. A moment later the wind picks up and people magically disappear. The next morning they catch up with Robbie, who doesn't seem to believe Jeff's story but hides Miranda from an old, crazy surviving friend, Brock, who has an underground bunker because he's afraid of an atomic conflict. The two had met in an old Jeff case and had formed a friendship. Jeff receives a call from Gladys telling him that she convinced her boss to get her job back on condition that she doesn't make any more mistakes. He goes to work and when he walks into his office he finds Mrs. White sitting smiling at him with a wry smile. She tells him that if she doesn't deliver Miranda to her, she will make his life like hell. Mrs. White injures herself and tears her dress and then runs off. Meanwhile, Jeff chases her but is stopped by a colleague and her boss who tells him he could fire him. Mrs. White starts screaming that she was attacked by Jeff and then she leaves. Jeff is forcefully kicked out. At this point Jeff tries to track down Robbie and Miranda without success and rushes to the bunker where he finds Brock lifeless and all destroyed. He finds only one address in a place outside the city. Coming out of the bunker he finds his car burned out. He calls Robbie and asks him to accompany him to the address, a secluded place outside the city. It is the evening of the solstice and the two find themselves near an old farm and a wheat field. Satanic chants are heard in the distance. As long as they get close, the two are discovered and captured and taken to the place. There is a big fire, Miranda is blindfolded and tied to a pole while Matthew is next to her with a large dagger. Mrs. White, on the other hand, is sideways and reciting incomprehensible words while other white-clad adherents listen and seem entranced by what is happening. Jeff yells at Matthew to leave Miranda alone, who is crying. Jeff keeps screaming until and at one point Miranda starts laughing. She meanwhile she begins to break free, she takes off her blindfold and starts dancing in front of Jeff while people sing creepy songs in the background. At this point Jeff, completely confused, is tied up near the fire and some girls approach him spreading blood on his body and finally Miranda gives him a kiss on the forehead while Robbie, who turns out to be an adept himself, hits him with a dagger, it rips his heart out and Jeff dies sacrificed to Satan. Lee is also present at the execution.

The film ends a year later when a guy steps in to settle a fight between a girl and her violent boyfriend. The girl turns out to be the charming Miranda.




"Enchained isn't always the most coherent of stories, but there enough visually interesting elements to keep most entertained."





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