A Horrible Way To Die (Adam Wingard, 2011): USA

Reviewed by Katharina Martin. Viewed at The Santa Barbara Film Festival 2011.

From the early morning showing to the provocative content, A Horrible Way To Die was a movie that required critical examination to be appreciated. Although the audience was warned of the film’s content prior to its screening, mostly everyone stayed. Between this warning, the title, and the 8am showing time, one would think people who were not die-hard thriller fans would have opted out. Nevertheless, everyone sat tight, with only one person walking out during the film. Everyone else politely waited until the end to vehemently express their dislike of the film. Watching a duo of middle-aged ladies dramatically rush to grab a rating card makes one ask, “what made this movie so awful to them?” Was it that they overestimated themselves in terms of their taste in this genre of film? Or was it that the creative choices the director made were too far fetched for them to grasp? Either way, the vast majority of the observed audience seemed disgruntled.

So what of some of the good qualities of this movie? What many people fail to grasp is the amount of time, effort, and energy that goes into making a full-length feature. Let alone the amount of money it costs. If this is kept in mind, the bar can justifiably be lowered when criticizing this movie. Wingard introduces his story with Garrick, a seemingly harmless man who turns out to be a psycho serial killer. Using a hand-held camera throughout the film, camera focus is played with to convey information that would be too graphic to full view on screen. It also plays on the main character’s life, who struggles with alcoholism, flashbacks to her relationship with Garrick, and an extreme amount of insecurity. The story leads Sarah through a turmoil of past and present by non-linear narration and editing, also achieved with focus-play. While most of the content was subliminally delivered, there were some very disturbing and graphic images that could easily be taken offense to. This however, was necessary to invoke feelings that matched those the various characters were feeling at that moment. As the audience is given an omniscient view of Sarah struggling through life, Garrick’s journey to find her also unfolds. The ending has a twist classic to most thrillers, however Wingard achieves his ending by characterizing his archetypes with unconventional behavior.