FROM BLACK (2023)

Studio:     Shudder
Director:    Thomas Marchese
Writer:     Jessub Flower, Thomas Marchese
Producer:  Kelly Frazier, Vincent Cardinale
Stars:     Anna Camp, John Ales, Jennifer Lafleur, Travis Hammer, Ritchie Montgomery, Eduardo Campirano III, Alicia Mason, Ian Casselberry

Review Score:

Summary:

Desperate to reunite with her dead son, a grieving mother performs an occult ritual that invokes a malevolent entity.

Synopsis:     

Review:

Earlier in 2023, I wrote a review for the Blumhouse thriller “Unseen” (review here) in which I talked about how horror could use new, distributor-specific subgenre classifications, including “slow-burn psychological drama on Shudder,” as an easy means of identifying a film’s familiar feel.  A bit before that, I also wrote a review for the Michelle Monaghan vehicle “Blood” (review here) where I rolled my eyes at the movie’s marketing, which recycled the tired tagline, “How far would a mother go to save her child?”

I kind of wish I had saved either of those musings for this review of “From Black,” the story of a grieving woman who essentially pulls a “Pet Sematary” to bring her young son back from the dead.  Not just because “From Black” very much falls from the “if you know, you know” tree of “slow-burn psychological drama on Shudder,” but because the film is so thin, there’s not a whole lot else to really talk about.

I suspected “From Black” wasn’t exactly going to thrust its shovel into new ground when I saw its official synopsis posed the same question every movie about a pressed parent asks: “How far is she willing to go?”  That suspicion was quickly confirmed when production company cards gave way to white words on a black background, and that text then segued into a title credits montage of overhead tracking shots.  Opening on a quote and using a drone to establish an environment are two of the most clichéd ways to kick off a movie, but “From Black” had barely begun to pull tropes from the community toybox of common movie construction.

Cora (Anna Camp) is a recovering drug addict tragically saddled with guilt regarding the kidnapping and murder of her five-year-old son Noah.  We know this from a support group meeting where the camera predictably creeps slowly toward Camp as she delivers the kind of emotional monologue writers like writing and actors like performing, never mind that they rarely read as unscripted moments.  Noah wandered away while Cora and her overbearing beau Wyatt were high on heroin, yet she was more often adoring than neglectful, as evidenced by a wistful flashback of Cora and Noah tenderly tickling, giggling, and cuddling while melancholy piano notes echo underneath.

Seemingly sympathizing with her situation, Able, who leads the support group, offers Cora an unusual solution.  Able claims he brought his own child back from the grave, and Cora can too.  Initially skeptical of Able’s angle, Cora eventually agrees to follow his lead in performing an occult ritual that will have her bartering with an entity known as “The Seeker” to resurrect her son, since deals with demons always go smoothly and raising the dead always turns out just fine in horror movies.

Able’s ritual takes several days to invoke.  “From Black” makes sure the movie mirrors that laborious lengthiness by turning its midsection into a series of snoozy scenes where the two of them pour salt circles, light candles, and mutter mantras over and over and over again.  In between Able and Cora’s redundant recitations, a police procedural loosely forms on another timeline where Cora’s detective sister ignores conflicts of family interest to investigate a murder Cora might have been involved in.  Additional distractions arrive in the form of Cora’s abusive ex, although his existence mostly motivates a reason to have a body drop.

Almost everything rings hollow because “From Black” is really a conversational drama conservatively sprinkled with motes of supernatural spooks.  A creature does appear and intermittent paranormal activity floats Cora in the air and briefly entrances Able.  Still, there are barely enough of those supposed scares to earn “From Black” alternative status as a “thriller,” and not nearly enough to alter the overwhelming flavor of standard straight-to-streaming fare far more focused on grief than ghoulishness.

No one appears to be phoning anything in on either side of the lens, but when you build something with blocks whose only color is beige, the final form can’t help but be basic.  Forget about not being unique.  “From Black’s” traipsing on thoroughly trodden themes doesn’t even kick up the dust of anything intriguing, leaving viewers to steer themselves through an aggressively uneventful experience that’s disappointingly draining, not to mention dull.

Review Score: 40