Alone With You is about a professional makeup artist named Charlie (Emily Bennet who also helped write and direct) who is preparing a romantic homecoming for her girlfriend Simone (Emma Myles). The longer she waits in the apartment, the stranger things become. But what is she really waiting for? For obvious reasons, single setting horror movies have become more abundant during the pandemic era. A sense of claustrophobia is something everyone can relate to. Getting this across was important even before COVID-19, but it is theoretically easier now. Alone With You attempts to replicate this feeling with mixed results.
The camera does the best that it can to make things look confined. This is easier said than done since the apartment is two stories. Still, Alone With You is able to get the tension across. The movie is also filled with a sense of loneliness, despair, and paranoia. One of the hardest things in this type of horror is to make the setting more of a character than just a place where things are happening. For the most part, Bennet and co-director Justin Brooks are able to do so.
Adding to the movie’s feeling is the fact that Charlie is alone the vast majority of the time. When there are other characters, they arrive in the form of a flashback or video call. Even when someone is with Charlie, she is still by herself. The calls from her mother (Barbara Crampton) are particularly difficult. Not only does she call with bad news regarding the family, Charlie’s mother peppers her conversation with microaggressions.
Alone With You runs less than an hour and a half, but it still feels like it is too long. The big reveal is a little too obvious, leading to a flat and disappointing ending. Nonetheless, the film is able to deliver some frightening moments along the way. The directors also create the mood using time and lighting. The plot may be a little too obvious, but the film is worth a watch.
Alone With You is now in theaters and comes to DVD, digital, and on demand February 8
You must be logged in to post a comment Login