Old
things are always bad in horror movies. By now, photochemical instant photography
isn’t just old, it could be considered ghostly technology. It has long been
obsolete, yet people keep trying to revive it. A young shutterbug and her
classmates would prefer to stick with digital when they find themselves stalked
by an evil entity somehow connected to an instant camera in Lars Klevberg’s
long-delayed Polaroid, which opens
tomorrow in Brooklyn (counter-intuitively following its VOD release).
“Bird”
Fitcher is sad and moody, because she still blames herself for her father’s
accidental death (and that name she has can’t help much either). One fateful
day, Tyler, her torch-carrying co-worker gives her the vintage Polaroid camera
he just bought at a yard sale. She takes his picture that afternoon and he is
dead by early evening. Of course, the blurry shadow-like figure she thought she
saw in the background is to blame.
After
his death, the shadow-something moves from Tyler’s picture to an instant snap
she took of Avery, the host of post-Halloween party she attended. Avery doesn’t
last long either. Inconveniently, the next picture it materializes in happens
to be a group shot of Bird and her not-very-close-friends. Initially, it is
hard to convince them of their danger, but a few deaths (and the photo’s
supernatural properties) will be rather persuasive.
Polaroid bumped from its
previously announced release into a long purgatory, because it was caught up in
the legal and financial problems swirling around the predatory Weinsteins. They
are creeps, but the Norwegian Klevberg had nothing to do with their “alleged”
abuses. Admittedly, Polaroid is not a
masterpiece, but it deserved better.
Frankly,
some of the cause-and-effect dynamics of the story are much cleverer than you
would ever expect. The backstory Klevberg and screenwriter Blair Butler (expanding
on Klevberg like-titled short film) unspool is also quite creepy. Granted, all
the kids are essentially indistinguishable stock characters. However, Mitch
Pileggi (a fan favorite from X-Files and
Shocker) has some interesting moments
as Sheriff Pembroke. Plus, Twin Peaks’ Grace Zabriskie does her twitchy thing
as Lena Sable, a woman who might have some answers.
Admittedly,
Polaroid never transcends its B-movie
budget or its bland teen ensemble, but it is oddly and unexpectedly fun. It is
rather sad it never got a fair chance, but at least Klevberg went on to helm
the Child’s Play reboot. Sort of
recommended for horror fans in the mood for a little down-market slumming, Polaroid opens this Friday (10/11) in
Brooklyn, at the Kent Theater.
