Going to a drive-in is pretty cool, and I really wish there
were a different and happier reason for its revival.
The Wretched starts off with troubled teen Ben
(John-Paul Howard) being sent to live with his father (Jamison Jones). As fate
would have it, Ben quickly realizes that a thousand-year-old child-eating witch
is living in the body of the woman next door.
There is a modicum of suspense way into the third act, but
before that, we have to mostly sit through Ben being misunderstood by everyone
and not being believed that the neighbor is a witch. We are also treated to
Ben's boring sort-of romance with Mallory (Piper Curda), a girl who works at
his father's marina. These teen characters talk in that cutesy, exaggerated
teen-TV-series speak that no one on Earth actually talks like.
Directors/writers Brett Pierce and Drew T. Pierce have a
good core idea with The Wretched, but they fumble with both plot and
character. The audience isn't going to care when your main character is so
incredibly dull. I wanted the witch to swallow this guy's vanilla soul. Then
there is the clunky plot in which the rules surrounding the witch's powers and
motivations aren't very clear. It's all just confusing and forgettable.
If you still want to see The Wretched, and you can't
find a drive-in, it is streaming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, and Google Play.
