SIGNIFICANT OTHER (2022)

SIGNIFICANT OTHER (2022)

Tagline: Nope

(Drama, Mystery, Freakin Crazy Stuff) [R]

In this one, a couple is taking a hiking trip in the forest off the coast of Oregon. Even though Ruth isn’t the marrying type, Harry proposes anyway sending her into a bit of a spiral emotionally. In spite of seeing a badly mangled deer covered in a black fungus-like substance, they decide to try and complete the camping trip. Little do they know what sinister events lie in wait. 

I have to say, from the previews this looked like something I might be able to get into. The is just a bit of ominous packaging in the trailer that teases you just enough to pique your curiosity if you like mysteries. Even so, I was going to skip this one over. After all, there is an ocean of bad movies from 2022 on the docket left to watch and I just really wasn’t interested quite enough to take the 84-minute plunge. 84 minutes you say? Yes, it’s only 84 minutes. Then of course one of my friends suggests I check it out and bam, it’s in the queue. 

This thing unfolds like a hand-stirred can of paint. It takes the majority of this movie to set up why we should care about Harry or Ruth. We even get the creepy little “warning kid” in place of the “warning old man” kind of hinting maybe they need to go back to wherever they learned to listen to crappy 70’s music rather than going camping. The film is beautifully shot and doesn’t feel terribly low-budget even though it might have been. I do think there is an overabundance of mediocre CGI, but the acting more than makes up for it. 

What feels like a romance being worked out premise, turns into a bats—t crazy intense and gripping film in the last half hour. This thing had my mind blown and had me falling off the edge of my couch with blazing twists, turns and gut punches the storyline provided. Not all of those gut punches were good. In fact, I found myself almost annoyed with how far this thing stretched in such a short period of time but still couldn’t look away. 

Every gratifying moment turns into something else and every way out gets forcibly blocked but this flick does not fail to deliver a wildly interesting and at times terrifying ride. Unfortunately, this was not a movie that I can say you walk out of feeling like everything is going to be okay. For me, that is always going to get points knocked off. If I wanted things to not be okay, I would just flip between new streaming services. Having said that, there is a lot to root for here and both Maika Monroe (THE 5TH WAVE) and Jake Lacy (RAMPAGE) are outstanding in these challenging roles. 

This one is a pretty violent but extremely out-of-the-box take on a romance mystery worthy of being seen at least once. Unless you are about to get married or go camping or stare out over the ocean. Then don’t, because this movie is not going to help you. A better pre-ending, a decent soundtrack, and a more hopeful tone would have really helped this thing out, but it does have a lot to offer in the way of originality and it succeeds in catching you off guard, especially if you go into it knowing hardly anything about it. 

SIGNIFICANT OTHER gets a 5 out of 7.

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