Sometimes films are mislabeled. This one was mislabeled as horror, but after seeing it, I could see why someone might think that this film was a horror film instead of a noirish thriller. The movie shows the darkness of the human soul, the scary feeling of being a deviant and how far you would go to not help yourself. I made an argument for the callousness of neighbors in today's society, and this is another great example of my thoughts in regards to callous neighbors. So without further ado, here is a review for the 2007 Stuart Gordon Film Stuck.
Stuart Gordon is a famous horror movie director and writer, and this is his 2007 release. He previously did Re-Animator, From Beyond, and Dolls just to name a couple of his films. This movie is a nice jump to a more traditional film than his previous straight to the throat science fiction and horror films. Stuck starts with a simple premise and builds slowly into an explosion of gasoline proportions! Seriously, this thing slowly builds to a major ending that is not too unlike a revenge thriller like "52 Pick Up".
Here is a trailer for the 2007 Stuart Gordon film Stuck:
The movie follows a young nurse as she goes from her job to a night of partying. At the club she takes drugs and drinks heavily. Meanwhile, the story shifts to a man who is being evicted and finds that the streets aren't easily accessible for a new homeless person. He ends up late night trying to get to a mission for shelter. Meanwhile our nurse is now leaving the club, driving home drunk and BOOOM! She hits the homeless man with her car, he shatters the windshield and gets lodged into the car. Instead of her calling for help, she drives home and leaves him in the garage! This scene is sick and gorey. The gore and sound combination in this part of the film create a horrific vision and creates a real horror anatomy in an otherwise tame thriller. The gore is what elevates this film beyond a drama into an insane world of horror.
Mena Suvari, you might remember her from American Pie and American Beauty and other films. I thought she was kind of cute in those movies, but in this movie she gets buck wild. This movie gets an R rating because she is in a sex scene that seems to last forever. I don't know how actors do this type of acting, this is as close to porno that you can see in an R rated setting, but this part builds to the horror of the film as she envisions her victim doing the deed with her! Seriously, this part of the film is tough, seriously tough. Mena Suvari in a nude scene would have been ok, but this sex scene is the most unsexy thing I've seen in a long time. Maybe that's the horror we're suppose to get from this film.
The film quality is that of an independent film and really holds the Stuart Gordon signature in many ways. The camera shots, the acting and the style are easy to notice. This doesn't seem like a straight to dvd film because the film grain is right above HD shoulder cams.
The movie reaches a major turning point when people get alarmed by the man in the garage, who is doing whatever he can to escape this situation.
Is Stuck Scary ?: Yes. In a lot of ways this is the scariest movie I've seen this year. Not because the film scares me, but because that this film is loosely based on a true story. The true story doesn't have the same ending this film does, but in real life, some lady did essentially murder a homeless man in the same fashion.
The scary moments come with the fact that the woman in question nearly gets caught many times. Her neighbors are illegal immigrants and don't call the police because they are scared. I know this feeling too well. My parents and I came here from Mexico and for many years were illegal immigrants. We were complete scared of the Police and never called them for anything. My parents even told me to hide under the seat when I saw Police, and to this day I'm a little nervous about them, even though I'm an American citizen now. Each time people are close to saving the victim, the woman finds ways to stop them. This is the same type of thing that occurs in "Misery" where no one seems to know that there is something wrong, until it gets a little late.
Another scary moment involves the victim trying to escape. He keeps getting close to escape but can't muster up to escape completely. The woman catches him and even gets help. This slow building sequence gets better when the victim stabs someone in the eye with a pen! The gore effects in this get magnified when our victim pushes the pen through the guys head in real time! It's a great role, and a great moment in this film. I really appreciated the attention to realism that came through in this moment.
Over all Stuck really left an impression on me. The movie is played out like a drama, or an Edgar Allen Poe story, and really has heavy lamentations to it. The movie is not supernaturl nor is it a slasher film. This movie deals with the human condition and deals with a real life scenario that is really scary for those of you out there partying and drunk driving. Check out Stuck on dvd, if you want a change of pace. It's not too outlandish, and really is set to a true life story that occurred in recent years.
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