Dementia: Part II review: A rather quirky tale of a handyman whose latest client may very well end up being his last.
Dementia: Part II review by Kat Hughes.
Dementia: Part II review
At just shy of seventy minutes long Dementia: Part II might just be the shortest feature film screening at this year’s Frightfest. Don’t let the length deceive you though as it has a very intriguing tale to tell.
Shot in black and white, Dementia: Part II tells the rather quirky tale of a handyman whose latest client may very well end up being his last. Wendell (Matt Mercer) is a handyman for hire whom takes a job for the lonely Suzanne (Suzanne Voss). He soon comes to recognise that Suzanne is suffering from dementia and starts to take advantage for profit. Events escalate and Suzanne is revealed to be way more dangerous than first thought.
Stylistically it’s nice to see a film shot in black and white again. In today’s modern era people just don’t create monochrome movies anymore, and it’s shame. Psycho is arguably the best known black and white horror film, known best for its shocking shower sequence. Although it is bloody and (for the time) unexpected, the colour saturation causes a disconnect and it’s not as affecting as it could be. What Dementia: Part II manages that a other black and white horror film’s don’t is that it makes the gore look genuinely real.
Over the course of my years as a writer I’ve seen many gore-packed features and have developed a very strong stomach. Yet Dementia: Part II, a film in black and white, had be gagging and reaching for the sick bucket. The film isn’t littered with gore or gross-out moments, but the few that there are, are incredibly effective. There must be something almost subliminal that director Matt Mercer and Mike Testin have placed in the film that gets the brain trying to convert the black and white image into colour and dreaming up something much worse than the reality.
Given the short run-time, Dementia: Part II obviously suffers when it comes to telling a full story. That’s not to say that there isn’t a beginning, middle and end – there is – it’s just that no section really has full time to breathe. You’ll have to concentrate really hard to follow everything at the pace it’s set to.
A nice return to cinematic styles of the past, Dementia: Part II somehow manages to be one of the most stomach-churning films I’ve seen this year.
Dementia: Part II review by Kat Hughes, August 2018.
Dementia: Part II screened at Arrow Video Frightfest 2018.
