Before adapting it to feature length, Slapface director Jeremiah Kipp created a short film of the same name. It was concise and beautifully tragic—and that’s where it should have ended.

Shudder’s new release follows Lucas (August Maturo), a young, grieving, bullied boy who finds solace in a demonic witch-like creature that dwells in the woods by his run-down home. He’s raised by his abusive and cocky older brother, Tom (Mike C. Manning), and Tom’s new girlfriend, Anna (Libe Barer). Lucas and Tom are still reeling from the sudden death of their parents. Tom drinks heavily, works all day and does a poor job reprimanding the increasingly troubled Lucas, despite warnings from the small-town sheriff and Anna. To make things worse, Tom plays “slapface” with his brother, a game in which they strike each other increasingly harder to relinquish their anger. Lucas is bullied into an abandoned asylum where he runs into a monster of local lore; he befriends her, and soon anyone who gets close to him is in danger.

While the premise of the film and its short predecessor is promising, Slapface leaves much to be desired. The timeline is jumbled, and events and relationships are not thoroughly explained; why is Lucas dating one of his bullies, and why are they so cruel to him? Who is the monster, and how did she get to be in the asylum? Why did she befriend Lucas?

The script briefly touches upon that she is a local legend, accompanied by a creepy rhyme, but nothing more. In contrast, we see continuously see the monster’s face, with its hag-like features and an exaggeratedly hooked prosthetic nose. Its movements are too human, from the way it carries Lucas while it runs to the bitchslapping match it gets into with Tom during the film’s climax. Often, these movements were verging on comical. These elements soured the creature’s allure and creepiness for me; had Kipp kept his monster in the shadows as a slinking silhouette and flushed out his script, the film would have packed a larger punch.

Slapface was a frustrating watch as there was potential here—especially in the setting, narrative, and the cast’s acting chops (especially Barer’s). Horror shorts being made into full features can be done, and done well; Andy Muschietti and Guillermo Del Toro created an unnerving but tragic horror in 2013’s Mama, which conjured up a frightening monster and a poignant tone, something that Slapface was desperately reaching for but couldn’t quite grasp.

Slapface
2021
dir. Jeremiah Kipp
85 min.

Now streaming on Shudder.

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