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Penny has a
very unusual phobia, ever since she was
in a horrible car accident as a child, she's been
afraid of cars. Her therapist thinks that it's a
good idea to drive up-state with her so that she
can get rid of her phobia, but when they almost
run over a hitchhiker, things take a turn for the
worse. They decide to give the poor hitchhiker a
lift, unknowing that they've just picked up a
demented serial killer...
Underneath it all, Penny Dreadful really is a great
movie, the only thing is that it's covered with
flaws and the occasional bad writing. Scenes that
should've lasted for five minutes last for maybe
30 minutes instead and death scenes that should have
been elaborate ended up feeling rather tame.
The movie starts out very promisingly with the
classic concept of a killer hitchhiker (though
perhaps we've seen a little too much of this concept
recently). Penny has a fear of cars, and while it's
quite difficult to relate to that, I think that
anyone who has a real phobia knows how the panic
creeps up on you, which really makes you feel for
poor Penny. However, most people don't have a real
phobia (I have a phobia of vomiting, seriously,
I panic every time I feel nauseous) and therefore
I think that it's quite difficult for most people
to be able to really relate to what Penny is
experiencing. But enough about phobias and on with
the thin plot.
While the first thirty minutes or so were great,
intense and very suspenseful (and I think most people
will agree with me on that), the rest of the movie
was, how do I put this, well it was simply quite
dull. For about forty minutes, Penny is just
trapped in the car, panicking. And while I could
understand her panic, it wasn't that exciting to
watch. Meanwhile, in a desperate attempt to make
things more interesting again, random people get
killed around her car, but since the deaths weren't
very gory or exciting, those scenes didn't add much
to the movie. After about half of the time that
she's been trapped inside the car they also change
the lighting into red, apparently blood has been
poured all over the car. I'm not really sure what
the purpose of that was because all it did was make
the movie less attractive to the eye.
I don't think that anyone thinks that being in a
darkroom (you know, where you process photos) is
very nice to the eyes, so why the hell would you
use that kind of lighting for a good amount of time
in a movie? I have to say that Penny Dreadful
ultimately felt like a Masters Of Horror episode
drawn out into a full-length feature, and I just
hate it when movies drag. It's got a top-notch
start and a very entertaining ending which saves
the movie from being a complete catastrophe, but
in the end, Penny Dreadful is nothing more than a
mediocre slasher flick which drags way too much.
A slashed throat, a toe cut off and a pen in eye,
too disturbing for the general audience my ass.
I wish they had used the piano music more as it was
really great, the rest of the score was pretty basic.
Penny Dreadful has many things going for it and had
the potential to be a brilliant slasher movie, but
due to poor writing, it ended up being occasionally
dreadfully boring. Overall, it's a watchable movie
due to the great first 30 minutes of the movie and
the kickass ending, but I don't know if that's
enough for me to be able to recommend it.
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