The new Shudder original entitled SHOOK, written and directed by Jennifer Harrington. Staring Daisye Tutor as Mia. Emily Gross as Nicole and Nicole Posener as Lani.
When Mia, a social media star, becomes the target of an online terror campaign, she has to solve a series of games to prevent people she cares about from getting murdered. But is it real. Or is it just a game at her expense. I pushed play on shook because its shudder and if its on shudder I pretty much need to watch it. Also considering it was completely dead at work, it was the best option I had at the time. The film opens up and slaps you over the head with Instagram Influencer culture and I immediately got sick. I instantly hated all the characters introduced. So it didn’t hurt when the first girl kicked the bucket in the cold open. Song playing during the credits is a horrible rendition of Cindy Lauper’s Girls just want to have fun. Right away you realize that the killer of this movie is called the “Pooch Killer” and with that I almost turn it off. You cant just be out here killing puppies, cmon now! But I stayed with it. Our main character Mia is very unlikable in the opening scenes of the film, this made it interesting to me considering the whole film is going to be following her, will she ever win me over. The film is not off to a promising start.
As I jot down “If Chico dies we riot!” I realize the tension for this film will continually be built around the whereabouts and wellbeing of Chico the dog. No spoilers to come in these reviews but I will say at the 27 minute mark shit gets serious.
What follows is a very Scream inspired game of answer this question right or else through the phone, over calls and texts. Unlike Casey in Scream, Mia here uses Google to assist on the answers. The film HEAVILY relies on technology which just isn’t my jam, but I appreciate the effort by Harrington. Honestly I’m hoping a lot of people in the horror community enjoy it.
In the third act there is so many twists and turns in the story, Harrington did a great job of making you as a viewer truly have zero clue where it was headed next.. Not in a way that it was confusing, just a head trip of trying to decipher what is reality and what could possibly be in Mia’s head.
In the end, this was a very creatively shot and well acted film by its star Daisye Tutor as Mia. As the end credits rolled I felt like I went on a pretty crazy ride into the depths of how dark and deep some people may go for love, affection and jealousy. Unfortunately the amount of time spent by our characters on electronics whether it be laptops or cell phones really made me not enjoy the film as much as I probably wanted to. Like I mentioned earlier, I appreciate Harrington’s vision of this being a modern day horror film and it makes sense as most people are never three inches from their phones at all times, but for me personally I enjoy my horror movies with as little technology as possible. As I tend to use the horror genre as an escape from everyday life. Shook had some very interesting twists along the way and a few pretty intense moments, but in the end, I just feel like shook was made for a different type of horror fan than myself. I am excited to see what the Jennifer Harrington does next thought as I will be watching.
2 Skulls out of 5.
Reviewed By Hugh Patrick ( Terrified State )
Terrified State 