One of the
co-hosts for the podcast I co-host, Bloodbaths and Boomsticks, was talking
about this movie and described it as “What if Tom Hanks in Cast Away was
instead a woman that had to deal with a half man half shark monster every night?”
Well that caught my attention. When I noticed this pop up on Netflix, I thought
I needed to give it a chance.
The movie
kicks off with our main character, Jenn, washing up on a beach. She has been
shipwrecked with the only other survivor being a guy named Brad. He is badly
hurt and dies not too long after being found. Jenn does a bit of exploring and
finds that she is trapped on a small island by walking the beach all the way
around. Then she goes inland and finds the creepy remains of a campsite that has
been long abandoned. Eventually she realizes that something large and scary is
crawling out of the ocean at night. Some
sort of shark monster that can walk on land. The rest of the movie is her and
the shark doing battle with one another. Oh, and there are some other survivors
that also show up to give a bit of character background on Jenn and that I
think maybe had a story of their own that got cut somewhere. More on that
later.
This is a
very simple movie that leans heavy on its execution and abbreviated run time,
clocking in at only eighty-two minutes, to engage the audience and keep us
entertained. I’d say they succeeded because I enjoyed the heck out of
Sweetheart. The first half of the movie we watch the Jenn character exploring
the island and generally being spooked by the environment. Even before we see
the creature they go a long way towards establishing a creepy atmosphere as
well as tossing in a couple of jump scares that work very well. There isn’t
much dialogue after Brad dies on the beach in the first couple of minutes which
means that actress Kiersey Clemons has to carry the story with just her
nonverbal acting skills. I really liked her performance and am looking forward
to seeing her in other things.
In the
second half of the movie another pair of survivors show up on a life raft
including Jenn’s boyfriend Lucas. The dialogue between them hints at some
relationship issues and that Jenn wasn’t the most reliable and trustworthy
person. Perhaps they felt this was necessary to establish an action that she
takes later in the movie. I won’t go into too much detail other than to say she
makes sure to collect evidence to prove the monster exists.
I also
think that there was some other plot thread that was perhaps removed from the
final cut of the movie. Lucas and the woman on the raft, Mia, keep skulking
about like they have some secret they are keeping from Jenn. There is also a
bloodstain on Lucas’ pocketknife and a lot of blood on the raft. Jenn even asks
them about mutual friend that may or may not have been on the raft with them.
None of this is ever dealt with and is dropped at some point with the demise of
Lucas and Mia. What is strange is that the filmmakers could have easily not
included the mentions to this as none of the scenes that hint at it are
important. That was sort of annoying.
I really do love this creature! |
Being a
monster movie, I have to talk creature effects. I’m not entirely sure if this
is a practical suit or if it is CGI or perhaps a combination of both. That
alone should tell you how much I enjoyed the design and execution of the
special effects in Sweetheart. They keep us guessing for a long time only
allowing glimpses of the monster in the shadows. The first big reveal uses a
flare back lighting the thing while it strolls up out of the ocean and only in
profile. When it is eventually seen on camera it looks fantastic and gives me
everything I want in a shark monster. Yeah, I have preconceived expectations…
so what? There isn’t a ton of gore, but we do get a couple nasty looking wounds
and a waterlogged half body. As a whole this is a perfectly acceptable amount
of gore and creature.
Looking
around I don’t see that Sweetheart ever got a theatrical release. It seems to
have played some festivals and then went straight to Netflix. Since this is a
Blumhouse production I am surprised by that. I would have loved to seen
something like this in the theaters. This is a solid flick that I recommend
horror fans check out.
© Copyright 2020 John Shatzer
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