Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Now Showing: Photographs


Photographs
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Directors: Matt Bettinelli Olpin & Tyler Gillett
Writer: Ben Collins
Cast: Emma Roberts, Boyd Holbrook, Jack O'Connell, Jack Lowden, Jessica Henwick, Leila George, Francesca Eastwood, Robbie Amell, Violett Beane, Abigail Cowen, Sophie Skelton, Mitchell Edwards

Plot: During the opening credits of the film, someone is seen looking at various photos of girls on Facebook until they land on the profile of a girl named Colleen Jamison (Emma Roberts) who lives in a small town in Tennessee. After looking at her for a few seconds, she closes the laptop. The film later opens with two young women, Britney (Abigail Cowen) and Janet (Sophie Skelton) who are leaving a cinema after watching a horror movie. The two girls enter the bar in front of the cinema, order a coffee and after joking and talking about the films they have seen they say goodbye and head in opposite directions. Britney gets on a bus but she looks around her because she has the weird feeling of being followed by someone. Janet instead goes to her car in a rather dark parking lot where there is also a big truck, a blood red Scania. As the girl drives off in her car, the truck is turned on and she starts following her. Janet parks the car in the driveway and enters the house. The woman does not notice that there is a man (Jack O'Connell) waiting for her sitting on the sofa. He wears a white mask that looks like a porcelain doll and is quite creepy. He also has a "Gold" tag on it. Janet tries to turn on the light but it doesn't work and the man jumps up and attacks her and after a short fight manages to block her without major problems. After tying her up, she meets a second man, also masked and with a "Silver" tag (Jack Lowden), along with his vehicle. For a moment the masks rise to hug and compliment each other. The two place Janet in the vehicle and go to a house carrying her to a cellar. Later they start photographing Janet. Janet is gagged and terrified and tries to scream through the gag. After taking a myriad of photographs in different poses, they approach the weeping girl and slowly stab her, killing her. The two take the last photograph while she is dying. Next, one of them sits in front of a computer and prints an image. The scene moves to a small town in Tennessee, Colleen Jamison (Emma Roberts) is a rather bored young woman who is preparing to go to work at the local grocery store, Wellburn Market. As long as she is on her way to work, she gets a phone from her colleague Jill (Violett Beane) who tells her that she is feeling unwell and she does not believe she will be able to go to work. The phone call ends and Colleen snorts huffing that it's not the first time Jill skips her shift. Meanwhile, the remote shows Jill under her blanket with a bottle of vodka while a man next to her kisses her neck. Colleen arrives at work early at work and sees a stapled photograph on the bulletin board outside the store and picks it up. The photo contains a young woman in a bloody white dress. The woman is Janet who apparently lies dead on a bed. The woman in the photo is in a very sweet position, her face is white and she has a strange and disturbing smile in which it seems that the victim is sleeping and dreaming. Colleen gets scared and even her photograph falls from her hands. Later that day, Colleen, after waiting for Jill, goes to the police station where she meets the sheriff and a few other officers and shows them the photo. The cops do not believe that a crime has occurred but rather that it is a bad joke. They say that girl isn't from there and tell her to sign a statement and that they will try to investigate as Colleen is quite insistent. Before leaving, Colleen points out that this image is labeled with the number 7 written in small print on the lower left. Meanwhile in Los Angeles, Peter Hemmings (Boyd Holbrook), a hipster photographer who is having quite a reputation in the city, is reading a blog where you can see photographs of women smiling or apparently dead or made up to look dead. The last photo, however, draws her attention even more because it appears to come from her hometown in Tennessee. Also notices another detail, these macabre photos are reproductions of photos of models that he had made for a clothing catalog the previous year. Assuming the person taking the photos is trying to create a "dead model" look, he decides to go where he grew up to see if he could find out. Together with his assistant Chris (Robbie Amell), his girlfriend and model Rose (Jessica Henwick), and two other very attractive young sisters, also models, Victoria (Francesca Eastwood) and Trip (Leila George) travel to Tennessee with the sorry about a photo shoot. In reality, Peter would like to stage a fake murder photo shoot as a kind of retaliation.

When the group arrives in town they meet Colleen at the local grocery store where she works and invite her to the house they rented for a party and where a photo shoot will also be done. Peter, despite Colleen's very sober appearance and her soap and water face, saw in her a particular face that may have charm in the photo shoot he plans to do. The girl, happy with the compliments even if embarrassed because she is not very used, she says that she would have gone to the party if she had freed herself from her commitments. As they leave the store, Peter has an argument with his girlfriend Rose who is jealous of Colleen's sweet and cute treatment. Collen watches the scene, not quite knowing how to behave. A few hours later, at the end of the shift, she contacts her friend Jill about her, to meet her at the party but no one answers and then writes her a text message. Unbeknownst to her, Jill is kidnapped by "Gold" and "Silver", the same ones who kidnapped the previous girl, Janet. Jill is curled up in a dog cage with a face between anger and fear. Jill seems like a tough and pretty smart girl and looking for a way to get rid of that bad situation. At one point we see Silver offering her a can of cat food, giggling. Angry Jill, first she refuses food and then after the man grabs her by her hair, she puts dog food in her mouth. But then she spits it in the kidnapper's face with a mocking smile. At that point Gold intervenes by her pulling the girl out of the cage by her hair and Silver uses a belt to suffocate her. They later use Jill's phone to text Colleen, playing Jill, saying she was going to the party. While Colleen is getting ready for the party, Colleen's boyfriend Ben (Mitchell Edwards), who she is having trouble with, says he wants to see her but she flatly refuses.

After arriving at the party, Colleen is a little lost, not being used to participating in such things. For example, we see on a coffee table Rose on a table with Chris emptying a bottle of alcohol on the girl's belly while Trip and Victoria drink from her navel. The three giggle in amusement. Colleen looks quite disgusted by that scene. The only one who seems to be interested in Colleen is Peter who approaches complimenting her on her clothing and makeup. The girl smiles embarrassed and says that she rarely wears makeup and dresses like that. Then, after a couple of glasses of wine, he asks her if she can start taking pictures of her until she pushes him away apologizing and goes outside to get some air. Outside the rented house, by the lake, the camera points out that a red Scania is also parked there, which Chris says belongs to the owner. Colleen walks over to her car and finds another photograph. The image depicts Jill, mutilated and with one eyeball removed. The girl screams in terror. The police arrive shortly after and tell the shocked girl that they will investigate but the clues seem to be practically nil. When Colleen gets home she finds Ben waiting for her and they fight and scream. When the boy leaves, he is ambushed by the men and taken. During the night, Gold enters Colleen's apartment, unbeknownst to her, and leaves Ben's wallet. The next morning, at work, rather shocked by what happened the previous evening, Colleen meets Gold (without mask) who appears kind and understanding. After a brief conversation, he is also approached by Chris and Peter. Peter offers to take her to Los Angeles and turn her into a model, star of her new advertising campaign. Colleen accepts, she wants to leave town as soon as possible. After returning home, she packs her bags and texts Ben and tells her that she will move to Los Angeles. When Gold checks Ben's phone, she sees the message and tells him that her body will fit in two bags. The two dismember Ben's body and put it in the garbage bags. Later, in the rented house, Peter and Rose leave Colleen, Chris, Trip and Victoria inside the house and head to the hot tub, where they start flirting. The two are suddenly attacked, Peter is stabbed to death first as Rose tries to escape but is caught and she has a broken neck with a towel. Meanwhile, between a glass of alcohol and the other, Chris and Colleen also share a long kiss. Trip and Victoria leave them alone to laugh and go to another room where they start wearing sexy clothes. During these actions they are blinded by a camera flash and savagely stabbed to death. In the bedroom, Colleen and Chris are talking. Chris goes down the stairs to get some water and sees the front door open. After approaching the door, he sees Rose lying on the ground, covered in a towel and dead. He goes back inside and calls Peter and tries to call 911 when the power goes out. Using the camera's flash lens as a light, he walks around the house, but Silver comes in from behind and stabs him in the head. Upstairs, Colleen tries to leave the room, but Gold keeps the door closed. She hides under a desk until she turns on again. After getting out, she sees the bodies and the two men who have placed them next to the sofa. Gold turns and takes a picture of her. He also tells her that he wants her to tie her hair for the second photo. He also tries to reassure Colleen by saying that she is perfect, that she is a star and that this show was made for her and he tells her not to be afraid of her because that will be the highlight of the show. The girl nods at her but at one point she tries to escape but she is stopped by Silver near the exit.

Eventually, we see Britney (the surviving girl from the opening film) going to work. As she is about to open the shop, a cute ice cream parlor sees a photograph on the front door. Chris, Peter, Rose, Ben, Victoria and Trip are all posing, while Colleen sits in the middle of her with her hair pulled back with a terrified look and makeup falling down her cheeks.



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