Knuckleball, 2018
Twelve year old Henry (Luca Villacis) is dropped off at the rural farm of his grandfather, Jacob (Michael Ironside) so that his parents can attend a funeral in the area. But when Jacob suffers a medical incident, Henry finds himself at the mercy of Jacob’s disturbed neighbor, Dixon (Munro Chambers). With no way to call for help, Henry must survive the day and the night in a battle of wits, all the while learning more and more about the unsettling relationship between Jacob and Dixon.
Some promising early character work gets lost in a muddled, strange final act.
What this film eventually, unsurprisingly devolves into is
Home Alone with an R-rating. There have been quite a few horror/thrillers that have gone that direction in the last few years, and it’s a very passable plot trope if you aren’t expecting too much.
The shame in this case is that the first act set up a promising foundation for some eerie, dark-family-secret stuff. Villacis is good in the lead role as Henry. There’s a really strong, short sequence early in the film that establishes some interesting character dynamics with him. Henry is sent out to a woodpile, where he discovers a feral cat. Henry sets up a simple trap and captures the cat. After regarding the upset animal for a few moments, he sets the animal free. Henry is smart and has some of that capacity for unkindness that is common to kids/teens, but he isn’t a sociopath or a sadist. I liked this scene a lot, because it establishes the elements we might see later as Henry fights for survival.
Michael Ironside is also very solid in his role as Henry’s grandfather. Jacob is welcoming of Henry, even showing him how to throw the titular knuckleball, but knowing how to throw a baseball and being a good person are two VERY different things. Jacob is blunt and gruff, and there is a nice ambiguity around his character. Is he just a reserved guy? Or is there something else going on?
The turning point of the film comes when it shifts gears from an atmospheric drama/thriller to outright thriller/horror. Jacob suffers a medical emergency and Henry must seek help next door from Dixon. Due to a combination of bad luck and a blizzard, Henry cannot call for help and it doesn’t take Dixon very long to show his very creepy true colors.
The second half of this film is like watching a small child try to make a cake. They just . . . keep . . . adding . . . more . . . stuff! There’s a decently tense sequence when Henry first goes to Dixon’s house for help. Dixon’s weird insistence that Henry not look at his computer. Dixon’s barely concealed obsession with Jacob. I always appreciate it when thrillers present you with a scenario where there isn’t an easy or obvious action that the character should take, and it’s not at all clear what Henry should be doing in this uncomfortable, possibly dangerous situation. But once Dixon makes it clear that he’s out to get Henry, things escalate to the point of absurdity.
An unfortunate side effect of everything stuffed into the second half is that it makes elements of the first half seem downright unbelievable. We learn that Jacob once told Henry’s mother that he’d shown his wife “who he really was” and that she’d been so overwhelmed she’d killed herself. Like, I’m sorry, but who would EVER trust their child into the care of someone who would say something like that? Every new piece of information we learn makes it more and more improbable that Henry’s parents---who do not actually seem to want their child to be murdered---would leave him with Jacob.
The last act also wants to have things both ways. It wants to throw outrageous violence around---and particularly at Dixon---but also be gritty and realistic. This contrast reaches its breaking point with one last reveal that’s so bizarre it totally derails any of the good stuff that came before it.
Somewhere in the first half was the makings of a dark, eerie thriller. It’s a shame the rest of the film didn’t follow suit.