Acolytes

Saddled with an almost maddeningly uneven sensibility, Acolytes ultimately possesses the feel of a sporadically engaging yet entirely underwhelming horror effort that admittedly benefits from a thrilling third act. The storyline follows a trio of teenagers (Sebastian Gregory’s Mark, Joshua Payne’s James, and Hanna Mangan-Lawrence’s Chasely) as they essentially stumble upon a body buried in the woods, with the bulk of the film following their ill-fated decision to use the discovery as a means for getting revenge on a childhood bully. There’s little doubt that Acolytes takes a sharp detour off the plausibility path following the central figures’ decision to dig up (and then re-bury!) that body, though this is hardly as problematic as the almost painfully uneventful nature of the movie’s midsection – which has been devoted primarily to scenes in which the three friends hang around and cause all manner of mischief. The strong performances eventually prove instrumental in sustaining a mild level of interest among viewers, despite the fact that screenwriters S.P. Krause, Shayne Armstrong, and Jon Hewitt, in addition to emphasizing more than a few head-scratching plot developments (eg he just happened to be driving out in the middle of the woods?), have infused the characters with attributes that are far from authentic. Director Jon Hewitt’s penchant for punching up even the most harmless of sequences with sharp noises eventually becomes comical, and while there’s certainly no denying the effectiveness of the film’s brutal (and downright surprising) final ten minutes, Acolytes primarily comes off as an endeavor that probably would’ve been better off as a short.

**1/2 out of ****