I have been debating whether or not I should watch Mercy for a couple of weeks now. I couldn’t get a good grip on what it was trying to be from the synopsis or trailer… Something about possession I assumed. After all, that seems to be the 2014 craze. Heads up, some spoilers lie ahead.
We get a nostalgic sort of narration from our lead character. A young boy whos grandmother is his best friend. Being born and raised in the south, I can relate. We take our grandmas pretty seriously around here. However, it becomes pretty clear that something isn’t quite right with the boys elderly BFF. We fast forward a year and grandma is getting thrown out of her nursing home for being all weird and shit.
Family brings grandma home – one thing leads to another and there are pageless books being filled by tears (or blood), a horrible CG demon wolf wondering around the forest, escaped mental institution attendee Aunt Janet springing from the joint to show up dead, a man slapping himself in the face with an axe, a little ghost girl talking to our main character, and we find out grandma was possessed by a demon all along. As for the little ghost girl? Oh, that was grandma too.
Make much sense? No, it fucking doesn’t.
Mercy’s presentation is somewhere between a lifetime film, a Tim Burton film, and every cruddy mid 2000s straight to DVD release you’ve ever seen. The acting is passable. McDermott turns in good work as usual. I suppose I’m frustrated because there was a good movie crawling around somewhere in here. I tried to find it… It simply alluded me.
Mercy [Review]
Please....Have Mercy On Me
If it weren’t for the good performances turned in by most of the cast, this would be the lowest review Modern Horrors has done to date. Mercy may not claim that accolade, but it is still an extremely underwhelming and boring mess of a film.