Despite the inconvenience, Elena felt compelled to hide her face while she was running for her life, but the mystery stalker kills her anyway. For reasons that will be revealed later, Alice wants to have her body cremated quickly, so she can be done with her once and for all. However, she is stuck at her mother’s remote smart house, because the medical examiner won’t release her mom’s body. Also, the key-fob for her rental car mysteriously disappears.
The audience can see an indistinct shape scurrying down halls and around corners, but Alice can’t seem to notice. She is too busy fighting with the alarms and environmental controls. To further confuse matters, there is also a weird live-streamer skulking around the surrounding woods, who shouts unhinged-sounding warnings to Alice that she should cover her face.
Frankly, it is hard to describe OTHER, because it is so disjointed. It plays out like a collection of high-concepts mushed together during a brainstorming session. Arguably, even the title does not make much sense up until the final five minutes.
It is a shame Moreau did not spend more time filing down the awkward excesses of his script, because the execution is often oddly effective, particularly the way he contrives to avoid showing any faces except that of his star, Olga Kurylenko. The vibe is like a drunken fusion of Italian giallos and the unconventional POV of Good Boy.
Regardless, Kurylenko and company are undermined by the film’s clumsy rhythm, like Moreau constantly forced square pegs into round holes or vice versa. Granted, horror audiences have seen far worse, but that is no reason to rush home to watch OTHER when it starts streaming today (10/17) on Shudder.