Read it. Do it. Repeat. Horror films whose story touches on sea nightmares are as appealing to directors as the battered plot of a sinister haunted mansion. Ghost ships, deep-sea monsters, the souls of dead sailors have often frightened viewers on screens and continue to do so while they remain in demand. Of course, in recent years, the horrors associated with the seas and oceans mainly live in the category of home video, which automatically lowers their status, but still sometimes come across really good tapes describing the misadventures of innocent explorers of the sea. Unfairly weakly passed at the box office, “Ghost Ship” actually became a cult horror that won the hearts of millions of viewers around the world on video media. And the intricate “Triangle”, staged by Mel Gibson studio, gained its popularity just bypassing the large screens. He tried to say his weighty word in this sub-genre of horrors and as yet unknown debutant Matt Lofgren along with the tape of his own authorship “Alarmed”. Independent production with a modest budget and the selection of completely unknown performers primarily attracts an attractive synopsis, promising at least something exciting, shot in the best traditions of sea horror, and at the same time able to demonstrate some surprises. And although "Alarmed" can hardly be called an exemplary genre work, it is able to attract attention to itself thanks to a not jokingly twisted story, trying to confuse the viewer, waiting to appreciate an easy, optional craftsmanship, but in fact caught in a whirlpool of mysterious mysteries and incomprehensible events.
So, the plot of the film introduces us to Samantha (Jennifer Stuckert), a young girl accused of murdering her entire family. The psychological trauma inflicted on the heroine is so strong that without the intervention of medical specialists, she clearly cannot avoid prison. However, a series of therapeutic sessions determines that Samantha is innocent of what she did, or she masterfully hid in the depths of consciousness what she did, burying the past with her parents and her sister. The only close person of the girl is her adopted sister Linda (Melissa Queen), with whom Samantha does not develop a warm relationship. However, five years after the acquittal, all friends of the main character, including Linda and ex-lover Mark (Brian Rife), go on a luxury yacht of Samantha’s parents on a sea voyage, not expecting anything nightmarish to happen on their way. One of the guests suddenly feels weak and loses consciousness. Guests hurriedly sail by boat to the shore, and only Samantha and Mark remain on the yacht. Some invisible force separates the couple, and the girl remains locked in the interior, and the guy is forced to stay on the deck. No matter what the heroes do, they cannot break the glass. Calling for help is not possible due to static interference on the radio, and the only boat sailing past them is not going to stop, sailing around like a devilish messenger. Someone, or something, does not want the passengers to leave the yacht and begins a terrifying game of mutilation and threats with Samantha. Days are replaced by days, and perverse nightmares do not even think to end, time after time forcing the girl to experience unbearable bullying, so that in the morning everything continues from scratch. Samantha urgently needs to understand what exactly she needs to understand, or she will never break out of this vicious circle.
Matt Lofgren was not interested in making a traditional horror film, because another ghost story, even unfolding on the sea surface, can hardly interest a wide audience. And Lofgren himself clearly understood that he was still far from James Wan and he would not be able to master the classical cliches and stereotypes, making them transform into something extraordinary. Instead, Lofgren built the narrative using the theme of cyclicity, tested in such remarkable mystical thrillers as Entering Nowhere, or the aforementioned Triangle. Of course, without a mystical presence on the yacht did not do and ghosts with enviable regularity appear in the frame, but they do not play a leading role in the plot, but only complement it, although, frankly, without their presence in the “disturbed” it would be possible to safely do, since they are not responsible for the torment of the main character, but someone completely different. But it is not worth talking about his person in more detail, because then you can reveal the key details of what is happening, which cannot be done in the review.
The film is an interesting symbiosis of several stories, including the ironic French-American horror “Stupid” and other horrors that almost never appear on the big screens due to the complexity of the built story, which not every viewer will appreciate. This hides the greatest value of “Alarmed”, whose creators are not afraid to flirt with difficulties, trying to put not just a passing horror film, but not a straight detective, confusing the plot almost to the very end, from which it is necessary to watch what is happening without interruption from the screen. But no matter how good the general concept of “disturbed” was, it was still not brought to unity, falling into disparate details that do not fit together well. The finale leaves no answers to many questions, scattering the logic of most of the script to dust. Having intrigued the audience with a non-trivial initiation, the director could not get out of the difficult situation he created, which puts a negative imprint on the final impressions.
Thus, I want to say that Matt Lofgren in “The Disturbed” made a serious bid to break out of the number of ambitious debutants like himself, thanks to a truly entertaining story that can maintain interest in the film throughout the viewing. The skill of the narrator, of course, Lofgren is still lacking, as well as the vision of the concept of the project as a whole, in connection with which it is somewhat difficult to perceive “The Disturbed” as a difficult dramatic work.
4 out of 10