The Black String review: Frankie Muniz returns to the trade that made him famous for this darkly comic tale of a one night stand gone very, very wrong.
Image Courtesy of Clout Communications
He’s been Malcolm in the Middle. He’s been Agent Cody Banks. He’s even been a professional race car driver for Toyota. But now, Frankie Muniz returns to the screen to delve into some witchcraft and body horror with The Black String. How does the former child-star fare in his new genre outing? Pretty good actually!
Muniz plays Johnathan, a guy who’s a bit of a loner with little direction in his life, living by himself and working shifts in a 24-hour convenience store. When Johnathan reaches out to a hotline to meet a girl, he soon gets more than he bargained for. Awakening with a weird rash and intense visions, Johnathan begins to suspect that he’s been marked for something dark and sinister, and potentially beyond his control.
The Black String has similarities to It Follows and it is very clear where those similarities lie. Both of the films involve an evil supernatural element that comes to plague the protagonist after having sex. Both films play on paranoia, particularly that which is associated with the sexually transmitted disease. Both films also involve the characters on a search for the truth and a way to fight their affliction.
Where they differ is in their outlooks, and ultimately in the nature of what it is that drives the horror. It Follows plays a lot more like an innocence lost narrative, and has an arguably more positive outlook as Maika Monroe’s character seeks to rid herself of her supernatural stalker through good old fashioned teamwork with her friends. For The Black String and Johnathan, things are much bleaker.
Image Courtesy of Clout Communications
As The Black String progresses, we begin to get a sense of the kind of life that Johnathan led building up to his moment of contending with something other-worldly, and just how hopeless his situation seemed to be in both cases. Estranged from his parents following past trauma, and with very little friends to speak of, the sad truth behind Johnathan’s affliction is that he has been seemingly chosen for this path just simply down to how hopeless his life is. That hopelessness leads him on a tale of desperation, one where matters only seem to get worse as he is driven more mad by the situation he finds himself in.
Muniz is a natural actor for this kind of role. With nervous energy that he’s honed since being a child TV star, Muniz is more than capable of delivering a performance of frantic, paranoid energy. As Johnathan’s situation gets more and more extreme, Muniz sells the manic descent with just the right amount of energy that makes for an unpredictable performance.
Where the film falters somewhat is in the build-up of the evil that comes to invade Johnathan’s life. A nice sense of mystery is built up around the true nature to this evil, with a nice amount of clues leading one to inspect a secret organisation and a nice level of conspiracy paranoia. It’s interesting but a little thin on the ground, ultimately leading to a finale that’s quite abrupt, leaving you wanting more details in both an elusive and frustrating fashion.
The Black String does very much deliver on the horror elements, namely when it comes to body horror. The gruesome details that come along with Johnathan’s affliction allow this to stand apart from the It Follows comparisons by showing a bit more dirt under the nails. Some of the practical effects are really, for lack of a better word, icky and disgusting in a very tangible way. The use of practical effects, both bodily and creature effects, are impressive and do leave an impression.
The Black String may well be a bit too close to the DNA of It Follows, but it manages to form its own identity with a level of body horror that’s satisfyingly grisly, anchored by a Muniz performance of nervous energy. A bleak, but entertaining dive into desperation and paranoia.
The Black String was reviewed at Arrow Video Frightfest 2019.
