FrightFest 2020 Review: BROIL
Director Edward Drake’s Broil is one of the most infuriating films which Movies In Focus has seen in a long time. Broil is hansdomly shot, well acted and it features a stunning musical score from Hugh Wielenga. However, its plotting and structure is a total mess – something which hinders Drake’s film from the get-go.
Avery Konrad is Chance Sinclair, a troubled teenager who is sent to live with her domineering grandfather, August (Timothy V. Murphy). The Sinclairs are some sort of vampirish dynasty and as they celebrate their ‘harvest’, Chance’s mother June (Annette Reilly) hires a ‘Sydney The Chef’ (Jonathan Lipnicki to poison the patriarch. Talk about a tense family get together.
The plot may sound straightforward, but Edward Drake and co-writer Piper Mars convolute things by changing narrative point of view and tonal balance. Broil seems like a five or six part series which has been edited into a feature length film and its plot and subplots weave together in a way which makes very little sense. There’s just too much going on.
On a technical level Broil is excellent but sadly the film is let down by poor plotting and structure. It’s a shame because I really wanted to like it.
