Hexecutioners, The (2015)
Starring Liv Collins, Sarah Power, Timothy Burd
Directed by Jesse Thomas Cook
I’m sure you’ve all heard these arguments before: “Banning drugs only creates more addicts so it makes perfect sense to legalize them,” or “Legalizing abortion can only help reduce backstreet abortions.” Similar lines of argument tend to ensue when the topic of euthanasia is brought up, although if director Jesse Thomas Cook’s The Hexecutioners is anything to go by, such assertions couldn’t be further from the truth as Tony Burgess’ script envisions assisted-suicide as a booming business model, with much deadlier options than lethal injections on the menu.
Such weighty material tends to be condemned to divide audiences, but I’m hoping that’s not the case here as, whilst never straying from the unpleasantries of the film’s core concept, the film doesn’t attempt to force-feed us with the perpetual euthanasia debate. Instead, Burgess shrewdly exploits such stern subject matter to create the perfect backdrop for a wholly original and creepy supernatural yarn.
The Hexecutioners plunges us into a world where euthanasia is part and parcel of the diseased consumer culture with tycoons earning a fast buck by offering physician-assisted suicides to provide relief from intractable suffering; customers can even pay that little bit extra for an à la carte sendoff. The narrative also holds up a taunting middle finger to the greedier guts of the corporate world, spiking the script with stinging satire: “Lighten up! This is euthanasia. It’s not like we’re saving lives or anything here,” jests an execrable big cheese in a lousy attempt to boost employee morale.
Buoyed by a resolutely committed roster of characters, the script keenly keys in on the bonds between the lead players. Meet Malison McCourt (Collins), desperately trying to weather her first day as an assisted-suicide nurse, Collins providing the perfect exemplification of the allure of demure in a superb performance as the chagrined wallflower. After a deplorable first day on the job, Malison is instructed to shadow the rugged ‘n racey employee of the year, Olivia Bletcher (Power), on a new assignment which, unfortunately for the both of them, is more perverse than anything they thought they might have been signing up for. Collins and Power put in fantastic performances, notably the latter, and given their characters’ conflicting personalities, it’s fascinating to watch their bond gradually develop in the light of their predicament.
So just what is the duo’s assignment? Before we get down to that, the writing on the wall is the eerie, frozen-in-time mansion, not to mention a garden maze that Jack Torrance must surely be hankering for. The candlelit interior is just as foreboding, and that’s before Malison and Olivia meet the unsavory caretaker, Edgar Birde, played by a kookily over-the-top Timothy Burd. Here lies my only real qualm as Burd’s performance just felt a tad overly-exaggerated for my liking, although of little detriment to the film as a whole.
The assignment, should they accept it, is to send off the hideously disfigured plutocrat, Milos Somborac (a heavily incognito Tony Burgess), in a far from ordinary manner: a brutal, ritualistic “sky burial” to liberate him from the vengeful spirits of a Death Cult that he enticed into committing mass suicide. This provides for the film’s most revelatory moments as the relationship between Malison and Olivia takes a complete about turn as Somborac’s solitude begins to resonate with Malison while Olivia’s seemingly steadfast tenacity quickly wanes – she might have “taken care” of plenty of patients in her own sick and sordid ways, but this client’s unorthodox demands are just plain inhumane in the membrane in her eyes.
Narrative and performances aside, the film is cleverly spurred along with resourceful moments of frantic editing and gorgeously sinister cinematography. The aforementioned sky burial, a mind-blowing, albeit brief moment, yields a particularly imposing, foreboding aesthetic with only scarlet tones allowed to breathe, and it all makes Hitchcock’s birds look tamer than Trafalgar Square’s pigeons by comparison. The film also features a spellbinding score from regular Black Fawn Films cohort Stephanie Copeland, who hauntingly accentuates the spirit of things whilst making predominant use of pianos and strings to ensure the music never oversteps its mark or distracts the audience.
It’s time to inject a lethal dose and bring this review to an end, but suffice it to summarise that The Hexecutioners is a poignant supernatural tale with one of the most inventive premises I’ve come across in a long time. The real secret to the film’s success lies in the versatile performances – pretty much across the board – and the fascinating and inextricable relationship the two leads share – rife with tangible emotions – that gives the film that extra level of sensuality and sexuality. The fact that it’s capable of engrossing the audience in the vacillating relationships and plights of the characters ensures terror reigns all the more supreme by the end of the film, all genuine proof that Cook is one director to keep your eyes peeled for.
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
