★★☆☆☆
Jollyface is a horror-thriller that lacks execution, vision, and a coherent story.
The film follows Blair, a woman whose boyfriend is killed in what police say is gang violence.
She tries to uncover the truth about what happened to him while being stalked and hunted inside her apartment building.
Written and directed by Justin Floyd, the film lacks depth, technique, vision, and style.
“The script is lean, but all over the place.”
The script opens with montages and terrible dialogue that introduce the characters as cardboard cutouts instead of human beings.
Instead of opening the film with an introduction to our killer, giving them an origin and a proper introduction, the film spends this time trying to convince us that these two people are dating and in love.
Not only does the opening feel like a wasted opportunity to introduce our antagonist, but it wastes time trying to force a connection with the characters through what comes across as Instagram Reels before getting into the premise of the film.
Only to follow that up with shallow dialogue that feels bland and chewy.
Floyd’s vision is unclear and poorly executed. The pacing is unsteady and uncertain, while the tone of the film is conflicted.
Max Aruj and Steffen Thum’s score is a contributing factor.
Their score is wonky and inconsistent, hardly ever matching the tone of a scene. It creates a disconnected feel while simultaneously adding to the film’s disarray.
During moments in which the score should reflect tension, it instead creates an out-of-place haunted-house effect, going bold and over the top while trying to remain spooky in theory.
“Floyd’s vision is unclear and poorly executed.”
Azariah Bjørvig’s cinematography follows suit and is a complete mess, lacking any clear vision or intention.
There isn’t a single well-composed shot in the film. Every shot feels sloppy.
The opening shots, where everything feels like a selfie video, make sense and work. Everything after that should either be crisp or intentionally loose. Yet everything is simply disoriented.
When crafting a horror film, the shots shouldn’t necessarily be crisp and centered like they might be when making a story-driven drama.
The camera should help create and craft the emotional disparity. Here, however, it merely takes me out of the movie because of the lack of intent and vision, as the shots counteract the intended emotional context.
Not to mention, the lighting and severe contrast as soon as the boyfriend dies are not only obvious but over the top.
The way they bleed the color out of the film with muted grays in an attempt to create an emotional state of depression feels uninspired.
Floyd’s directorial debut is messy, inconsistent, and shows little promise.
“The script is undercooked and the direction is uninspired.”
While the concept could have resulted in a promising horror film with relevance, the script is undercooked and the direction is uninspired.
The kills are too tame and show next to no blood, leaving little room for the film to work as exploitation or even as a fun slasher.
Its inability to create a compelling, pins-and-needles horror experience with thrilling elements leaves the film uninspired and forgettable.
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