SXSW 2022: JETHICA & THE CELLAR

Two films. Both supernatural. One takes the familiar premise of ghosts and finds something darkly funny and insightful out of it, all within an efficient 70-minute runtime. The other struggles to maintain its originality from start to finish and winds up being one of the more forgettable titles of the year.

Jethica (Pete Ohs)

It’s amazing what a visionary, passionate filmmaker can do with just one simple idea and 70 minutes. Essentially played like an extended short film, Jethica establishes its universe with such speed and confidence in tone. Elena (Callie Hernandez) and Jessica (Ashley Denise Robinson) reunite for the first time since high school. We learn that Elena has been hiding out at her grandmother’s ranch. She offers Jessica a place to stay, and she takes it because she too needs to hide. Why? Well… see… it’s complicated. What? Why is the movie title spelled “Jethica”, you ask? Ah well… before we can talk about that… we need to talk about Kevin.

Kevin (Will Madden) is the absolute worst. For starters, he has been relentlessly stalking Jessica across the state, sounding off in his delusional rants and voicemails that they’re supposed to be together and that he would move heaven and earth to be with her. But his stalking has been getting worse, and it seems like he has now followed Jessica all the way to New Mexico, where we hide out at Elena’s ranch. So why “Jethica”? Simple. Because Kevin has a lisp.

That should reveal everything you need to know about Pete Ohs, who directed, produced, and co-wrote this film, along with a handful of other writers (Andy Faulkner, Callie Hernandez, Will Madden, and Ashley Denise Robinson). Full of sharp jokes and twists and turns in its storyline, Jethica wastes no time in bringing suspense, humor, and melancholy to the foreground. As we follow Elena and Jessica’s attempts to get rid of Kevin, the script starts to reveal there’s something more supernatural at play.

Think David Lowery’s A Ghost Story, but directed by someone like Don Hertzfeldt or Riley Stearns. The dangers of stalking are very real here, but they’re told in a refreshing way – never once do Elena and Jessica come off as victims. They’re not scared, more like irritated over this persistent inconvenience. As for Kevin himself, the stalking doesn’t make him a villain or looming threat. Frankly, Ohs and Madden emphasize the opposite. The stalking makes Kevin pathetic. Because he IS pathetic. Because “Kevin” just sounds like a pathetic guy. Picture a party with a ton of people having fun and hanging out. There’s always that one guy standing by a doorway with a red solo cup in his hand, not really talking to anyone but is standing there and watching everything. That guy is a Kevin.

But then that leads to what makes Jethica more than just a good film but a great film. Amidst the dark comedy and sarcasm, there is a bittersweetness and heart at the center that says how much we long for human connection. Ohs keeps the story told at a minimalist level, constantly relying on the beautiful but barren New Mexico landscape to emphasize how isolation and quietness can transform into loneliness.

Jethica is a film that never loses track of its simplicity and core idea. It comes and goes in a quick 70-minute runtime and leaves a stronger impression than most comedies and ghost stories. With hilarious and tender performances and a solid confident hand in direction, this is exactly the kind of small festival gem that highlights an emerging talent and fuels my excitement for future independent films.

Jethica premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival on March 12, 2022.

The Cellar (Brendan Muldowney)

The benefit of a horror short film is all you really need is one neat scary idea or a punchline scare and the audience is on your side. It’s how we get films like Mama and Lights Out, where that initial spark then inspires a good (even great) horror feature that expands its original idea further.

The Cellar is not that kind of movie. Though writer/director Brendan Muldowney brings some admirable callbacks to his original short film, The Ten Steps, this is clearly an example of a film that peaks early. A family moves into an old house with a creepy cellar and one day, the daughter (Abby Fitz) mysteriously disappears, all delivered through a pretty effective sequence. It’s a shame that the rest of The Cellar is just us following the workaholic mother (Elisha Cuthbert) figuring out things that either we already know or don’t really care about at the end of the day.

Probably every single trope you’ve ever seen in a horror film is found here. Keira (Cuthbert) goes through your classic “Google search” and “consulting a professor” scene, leading to some eventual discovery that the cellar is the product of something demonic. But we already know that! The daughter disappeared through supernatural means, of course, there’s something sinister at work! It makes most of The Cellar’s second act feel awfully procedural. In the first Google search, you’re a bit disappointed. The second time it happens, you’re annoyed. The third time, it really starts to test your patience.

It’s not until the third act of The Cellar, where Muldowney flexes a few his cosmic horror sensibilities, that there is finally some spark. But even in its climax, the film fails on a technical level to impress. So much of the last thirty minutes is badly lit, relying solely on the flashlight of an iPhone to light our actors, which ends up forcing viewers to see their own reflection about 80% of the time – this is especially true if you watch The Cellar on your computer via virtual SXSW. But even so, basic elements like shot composition, camera movement, and framing are all sadly disregarded, taking away what little tension there is in the scene.

Cuthbert tries her absolute best, but the script simply doesn’t give Keira anything of depth beyond “workaholic mother who regrets not being there for her daughter and is now willing to do whatever it takes to get her back.” When the best performance in the entire cast is Fitz as the daughter, who disappears from the film fifteen minutes in, your movie is in trouble.

Though there are some interesting ideas presented in the first and third acts, too much of The Cellar is unoriginal plot contrivances, along with dialogue and performances that fail to leave an impression. Had it been crazier, more extreme, or more unique in tone, it would have fared better. Unfortunately, The Cellar is that kind of movie destined to join a long catalog of horror titles listed on a streaming platform for you to scroll past, as you try to find a better film that’s worth your time.

The Cellar premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival on March 12, 2022.