Zack Parker ventures into the world of psychological horror with Proxy, an often times brutal indie film that highlights just how crazy a mother can be. The narrative that Parker lays out has enough twists and turns to keep you engaged by revealing one plot shake-up after another, however, it all gets hindered by its unbelievable characters and unconvincing execution. Proxy follows a very pregnant Esther Woodhouse who is brutally attacked and disfigured by a hooded assailant. The attack leads her to a support group where her life of sadness and solitude is opened up to friendship, understanding, and even acceptance. However, her new found friendship and understanding are not what they seem.
The first 5 minutes of the film delivers a very tough pill to swallow as we see a pregnant Esther (Alexia Rasmussen) get viciously attacked and left for dead. That’s a hell of a way to start a movie if you ask me. There’s absolutely no time to settle in here as Parker throws us straight into a world of some seriously messed up individuals. From the moment we meet Esther, something just feels off about her. She’s damaged goods who appears to be meandering through life without any friends or family and any sense of real direction. There’s something very off-putting about her character from the onset, and once the film starts to pull back its layers you start to see just how disturbed she really is.
So it gets off to a great start, with a very peculiar character at its center—who is played convincingly by Rasmussen—but it all gets entangled in the fact that Esther isn’t the only bat-shit crazy character in the film. Seriously, every character we meet throughout the film after being introduced to Esther has absolutely no redeeming qualities. It’s kind of exhausting to watch a movie where you hate every single one of its characters—they continually make unbelievable decisions that feel tailor made to suit the plot of the film. And to make matters worse, the ridiculousness of its characters are portrayed through amateur acting aside from Rasmussen who does deliver a pretty jarring performance. It’s simply because of that one flaw that Proxy never quite lives up to its promise.
And really, though, the major downfall of Proxy is its characters because the story itself—while a half hour too long—is very unsettling and has a way of dragging you through its dark hole of a tale whether you want to go or not. It’s one of those movies that is going to split its audience between either loving it or hating it. I wouldn’t say that I hated it as I just felt I was let down more than anything else. It teases you with something that could have been so much better, and in the end it’s going to be up to you to decide whether or not it hits all the right notes.
Proxy was on the very edge of something special, but it’s just a little too over-the-top for its own good as it continually gets dragged down by its own characters.
Good review. I’m glad this director’s movie is getting blasted after he poked fun of me when I told him I didn’t get the ending of his previous film and asked him what it meant. He thinks his work is perfect as he shoots down anyone who criticizes his movies. When I told him I was an aspiring screenwriter, etc. he told me my opinion of his movie didn’t matter b/c I had never actually made a movie so I don’t know what the “F” I’m talking about and that if I was good enough to sell a script I would have done it by now, etc.
I think I remember you mentioning that about him somewhere. That’s a bummer man, it really sucks when filmmakers do that kind of stuff. The reviews for this one seem to be all over the place. I just wasn’t that into it. Really slow, too much filler, and unbelievable characters took me out of it. Some of it is really cool though and I think it could have been a pretty badass flick if it was a little tighter.
Too bad about this film – sounds like a compelling premise.
You know what, though, there’s a lot of people who really enjoyed this one. I would definitely say to give it a watch because you might really dig it!
I was disappointed but I think my expectations were too high. Actually they weren’t that high, but I was looking forward to seeing it because I only heard positive things about it and several blurbs like “this movie will mess you up!” There were a few surprises, but something that was supposed to be a big twist I had sort of figured on anyway. I guess as far as recommending it I’d tell people it’s worth seeing but to wait for Netflix instead of VOD. I regret spending ten bucks for the Comcast rental, wish I’d waited. The opening didn’t really seem to fit with the rest of the film, and Parker said he purposely made that brutal so he could do a slow-burn later. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t hoping to seeing dead babies or fetus violence through the movie or anything. Some chills and thrills would have been appreciated, though, instead of me forgetting about it a couple hours (tops) after the credits rolled.
I also agree that maybe ONE sympathetic character would have been nice…
Yea, I agree with all of that. I also went in with high expectations because a lot of people seemed to love this one. I liked what it was trying to tell us, I just couldn’t look past its characters.
When did you sneak this past me? This movie… so lame…. I’ll have my piece out on Friday hopefully.
My blog was being stupid for a couple of weeks where my posts weren’t showing up in the reader so I think that’s how this one got passed you. Lame is a good word for this one. Looking forward to your thoughts on it!