Review: Abstruse (2019)

Amanda and Mindy, two barmaids in a club, leave with Justin and Daniel. However, the night turns into a nightmare when Mindy is killed by Justin. However, when Amanda goes to the police, they are more suspicious of her than of Justin, who is the son of a Senator. With no one believing what has happened to Mindy, Amanda turns to her father for help, a former convict...

When I reviewed the film, Eternal Code at my horror Blog, I said then that the writer and director of that film, Harley Wallen, needed to give his story more of a polish and perhaps it needed a bit of an edit too (you can read that review here). Well, if anything Abstruse is more evidence of those points.

The basic story here, a murder, a cover-up and the father helping his daughter, that isn't the most original. But, as I have said many times before, a film doesn't need to have the most original idea behind it, rather what the writer and director chooses to do with it.

Well Harley Wallen makes the same mistakes as Eternal Code with his writing, by layering in too much story, and including scenes that really slow the film's pace down. There's also a sequence, which appears to be an error with the continuity, because if it's not, it suggests no one was paying attention, because a character seems to know more than she possibly could at one point. There's also a moment when a character is killed and the body is left on the street and no-one, NO-ONE notices it. I actually said, 'really?' out loud at that moment, such was my disbelief at this detail.

As with Eternal Code, Wallen is a better director than writer, but again, there is little tension in the film at all. Scenes happen, then the film moves on, but you don't find yourself drawn into the story at all. Sadly, like the previous film it is a bit dull.

The performances don't help really. Tom Sizemore is plays the father, Max and his performance is all over the place. Kaiti Wallen plays Amanda and her performance isn't that good either. Much better is Kris Reilly as Justin he does have some charisma in the role and plays the psychopath well. Dennis Haskins plays his father and is okay with limited screen time, while Jessika Johnson is actually quite good as Mindy, again with limited screen time. The director and Jerry Hayes play the detectives investigating and aren't that bad either.

Abstruse, like Eternal Code, needed a rewrite of the story and an editor to trim the nearly two hour film. If it had it might have been a better, more interesting film. In this version however, Abstruse is a dull, plodding thriller. Apparently, Abstruse means difficult to understand or obscure. I can only imagine its an attempt to sound more intelligent, applying the word to the actions of Justin.

However, much like the film itself, it simply doesn't work.

Rating: 1/5