THE WICKED (2013)

Studio:       Image Entertainment
Director:    Peter Winther
Writer:       Michael Vickerman
Producer:  Couni Young, Marvin Towns Jr.
Stars:     Devon Werkheiser, Justin Deeley, Jess Adams, Jamie Kaler, Caitlin Carmichael, Diana Hopper, Jackelyn Gauci, Chase Maser, Nicole Forester

Review Score: 

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Summary:

When a young girl goes missing, a group of teenagers discovers that an urban legend about a local witch house may not be a myth after all.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

“Season of the Equinox, the witch besets her kill. One less soul the town to know, taken against their will.”

A small town in Michigan is home to an urban legend about a property known as Open Hearth that was once the home of a witch. Local children now dare each other to throw a rock at the house. If the rock breaks a window, “The Wicked” will come for that child. Amanda is frightened that she will be taken next because she broke a window while at Open Hearth with her friend. Amanda’s mother Terri dismisses the child’s fear, but something supernatural kidnaps Amanda from her bedroom during the night.

Tomboy Sammy leaves her drunk mother to take a bike ride. Terri posts “Missing” posters for her daughter Amanda throughout town. Brothers Max and Zach are with their father at home, hosting a wake for their recently deceased magician grandfather. Zach hangs out in the backyard with his friend Carter and Carter’s girlfriend Julie. They plan to take a camping trip the next day while Zach’s father is away. Sammy eavesdrops on the trio from a nearby bush. She then visits Max in his bedroom. Max shows Sammy a magician’s lighter that his grandfather left him. Sammy accidentally breaks Max’s witch bottle before telling him that Zach is planning to go to Open Hearth with his friends. She later convinces Max to follow Zach on his trip and take pictures to use as blackmail against his brother. Meanwhile, a ranger named Jake is attacked by the witch outside the ranger station.

In town, Sam and Max run into deputies Carl and Mahoney. The two deputies regularly clash with Samantha over her prank phone calls. Sam claims to have a picture of Carl smoking dope on duty that she uses to threaten him. Zach, Carter, and Julie pick up a girl named Tracy who is interested in Zach. Before going camping, they tell Tracy about the legend. The story about throwing a rock at the witch house used to be a senior dare at high school until a group of kids went missing 15 years ago. The witch, LaDean LaRene, survived her original witch burning by eating children. Little ones keep her young. Old ones keep her strong. And pretty ones keep her beautiful.

Sam and Max make a stop while following Zach and his friends on their bikes. They end up kissing. At Open Hearth, the four older kids throw rocks simultaneously and a window of the home breaks. They then see a shadow in an upstairs window. That night, Carter and Julie have sex while Zach and Tracy skinny dip. Sam and Max make their way to Open Hearth where Max breaks a window. Something then chases the pair through the woods. They record a video before being attacked. At the campsite, Tracy finds missing girl Amanda’s personalized teddy bear outside the tent and convinces the group to search for her.

Zach and Tracy find Amanda with an apple in her mouth and wrapped in a sort of cocoon in Open Hearth’s basement. The group then discovers that their Chevy Tahoe has been stolen. Zach notices Sam and Max’s bikes in the woods and finds the video they recorded before being attacked. The witch has the power to teleport and chases them through the woods. The witch captures Carter and Julie while Tracy and Amanda hide. Zach returns to Open Hearth where he finds Sam, who tells him that Max was taken. Zach sends Sam to go for help while he searches the house again. He finds his brother trapped by the witch, but she puts a spell on Zach. Sam calls the deputies from a payphone, but they think it is just another prank of hers. She convinces them to come out by promising they can arrest her for the prank phone calls.

The witch puts Carter through a meat grinder and eats him. She then does the same to Julie. Zach escapes his cocoon and frees his brother. They stab the witch and run through the house looking for a way to escape. They realize that the witch’s spells keep them from leaving the surrounding property. Both boys are then recaptured. Carl arrests Sam. Refusing to believe her stories about the witch, Carl begins driving Sam back into town. But Mahoney finds Tracy with Amanda and radios Carl. Carl and Mahoney both drive to Open Hearth.

Carl searches Open Hearth, but a spell prevents him from seeing the imprisoned children. Outside, the witch kills Mahoney. The witch opens the back door to the sheriff’s van, but Sam uses an extinguisher to run past the witch. Sam enters Open Hearth and finds Max. Carl finds Mahoney’s body and the witch attacks Carl, but he survives. When the witch goes inside and uses a spell to trap Sam and Max, Carl returns and shoots her. Sam and Max rescue Zach and use their blood to make a witch bottle that wards off the witch. It works momentarily, but the witch overcomes the bottle’s power. Sam reminds Max that witches burn. She throws Max an aerosol can and he uses his grandfather’s lighter to burn the witch.

The survivors leave the house where all of the magically repaired windows suddenly break. A subsequent search of the premises by police does not uncover the witch. Zach reunites with Julie. Zach and Max’s father also returns. In an epilogue, the witch is seen as a beautiful young woman approaching a small girl in a public playground.

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Review:

Had “The Wicked” pared down its language and edited out the teenage sex, it would have been a recommendable horror film for the tween set.  Unfortunately, the sex and the swearing try too desperately to give the film an edge it does not have, nor does it need.

A small Michigan suburb plays host to a unique urban legend about Open Hearth, an old house in the woods that once belonged to a historic witch.  Local kids dare each other to throw a rock at the house in the way that all kids like to tempt supernatural trouble.  Ricochet your stone off the wood and you are safe.  But if you break a window on the house, “The Wicked” will come for you.

As local spook stories go, this one has the makings of a solid premise, even though this witch is not too concerned about particulars when it comes to “rules” about her legend.  After a young girl breaks a window and is subsequently torn from her bedroom one night, a foursome of teenagers decides that leaving well enough alone is hardly in the best interest of high school fun.  Sneaking off for a camping trip, the two couples throw four rocks simultaneously at the house and one of the stones breaks a window.  The teens wonder whose rock shattered the glass and one of them teases, “we’ll know soon enough!”  Evidently, the witch could not figure it out either, so she just nabs three out of the four anyway.

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The witch is so powerful, she can turn a single white door into double brown doors on the other side.

As a matter of fact, broken panes and trespassing are not required at all to invoke the witch’s wrath.  One ranger and one deputy each have torn throats to prove it.  Clunky mythology aside, the plot has all the thematic earmarks of a satisfying adolescent-aged horror tale.  The film opens with one boy mourning the loss of his beloved jokester grandfather.  He and his “girl-friend” later ride bikes and explore a young crush.  And snotty sibling rivalry and fears of parental punishment are put aside to rescue both friends and strangers in peril.  Even the unlikeable characters find ways to redeem themselves and the young cast makes a good ensemble.  Particularly strong is Diana Hopper as a tomboy with knee-high Chuck Taylors and a smarmy attitude.

Over the entire production is a peculiar patina that gives “The Wicked” the look of a 1990’s syndicated television program.  It has a lighting style and visual effects palette that seem pilfered straight from “The Outer Limits” revival series.  These things are marks against the film only because it is strangely not a TV movie intended for families.  A conveniently available aerosol can for witch burning or the timely arrival of a father to hug it out with his sons would pass on ABC Family, but “The Wicked” wants to be something else.

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                                 Pay no attention to the crewmembers crouching in corners.​

Eliminate two graphic scenes of teenagers passing through meat grinders and most of the gore is eliminated, too.  What is left is horror suitable for that same age group, but too subdued for an adult crowd.  Given all of the above, perhaps the filmmakers feared a comparison with the televised versions of R.L. Stine’s “Goosebumps,” and Frankensteined “The Wicked” into something else by overdosing it with f-bombs and male buttocks.

Language and nudity have been hallmarks of horror for decades.  In the case of “The Wicked,” however, their inclusion just sticks out as needless.  “The Wicked” would be an easy thumbs up if it were retooled for a younger demographic, which is what its story and presentation cry out for.  But since it wants to appeal to adult audiences instead, it has to be graded as such.  In that case, the TV look, teenaged tone, and terribly tame terror make this an easy thumbs down.

Review Score:  45

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