Beautifully Goopy ‘Kryptic’ Is A Fascinating Look At Being Human [Fantasia 2024 Review]
Cryptids are a special interest of mine, not necessarily because I truly believe that they exist, but I’m delighted (and a little terrified) at the idea that they could exist. Mothman, Bigfoot, the Fresno Nightcrawler, I love them all. So when filmmakers decide to take on the world of cryptozoology, my ears perk up and wait patiently like a dog waiting for supper. Enter director Kourtney Roy’s feature film debut Kryptic, which is unlike any cryptid film I’ve ever seen. Instead of focusing on the monster itself, Roy and writer Paul Bromley focus on the cosmic horror and unknowability of such a being. The result is a beautiful meditation of gender, time, and slime. Lots of slime.
Chloe Pirrie plays Kay, a woman obsessed with the Canadian Sooka (a cryptid of Roy’s own creation) and Barbara Valentine, a cryptozoologist who went missing looking for the monster. To further feed her obsession, Kay joins a women’s walking group who just so happen to be going on a hike in the area where Valentine disappeared. As soon as the pink-clad women step foot into the lush forest, Kay wanders off on her own, armed with a video camera and a naive desire to find the truth. As she stumbles into a clearing, the Sooka appears and she’s ready to capture footage to prove the creature’s existence.
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But, instead, Kay is frozen in her tracks. Something happens and she loses time, only snapping back to reality when she realizes the walking group is searching for her. While Kay still looks like herself, something has intrinsically changed within her. She can’t remember her name, her job, or where she lives. Upon realizing that she doesn’t really care much about this life anymore, she embarks on a road trip through Canada to discover who she is, why she is, and what exactly is happening to her.
Kryptic becomes a road movie fairy tale about a woman searching for the truth but she doesn’t really know what that truth is, exactly. Her search leads her to trailer parks and manicured suburbs where she meets a colorful, and sometimes sinister, cast of characters who make Kay very aware of her own body and how she interacts with the world around her. That includes the reality of sexual assault and how strangers and lovers alike are capable of sexual violence, especially when men wish to exert control over the female body.
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What Kryptic truly gets right is the concept of high strangeness and the theorized incomprehensible nature of cryptids. High strangeness, as discussed by John Keel in his book The Mothman Prophecies, is essentially a way to encapsulate the occurrences that often surround alien abductions and experiences with cryptids. It refers to a heightened sense of reality that doesn’t feel like it should make sense according to science, but science is supposedly shattered by particular beings. Roy and Bromley are really working with that idea of shattering our concept of reality and what that experience could look like and feel like. Most cryptid films lean into the physical monster to create fear, but in Kryptic, fear is more existential.
Now that isn’t to say that Roy doesn’t fill Kryptic with goo and goop. Strange subconscious states are represented on screen as writhing organic material caressing Kay. Certain encounters lead to semen-like slime oozing out of every orifice. Pirrie is often coated in a layer of grime and slime as her attempts to seem like a normal human fall apart with each new interaction. So while Roy does craft a very existential film, she doesn’t skimp on the practical effects to remind us that this is still a monster movie.
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While the idea of cryptids brought me in, Pirrie’s performance truly hooked me into this bizarre story. Her facial expressions alone capture the constant fear and caution she’s approaching the world with, making Kay feel both alien and relatable, especially as she tries to navigate speaking with men. Kay’s fear and strength become your own as you cheer this woman on to figure out where exactly she belongs in the universe.
This is not your grandfather’s Bigfoot movie where a man in a gorilla suit lumbers through the woods, bellowing at unsuspecting campers. Kryptic is a monster movie unlike anything you’ve ever seen, both heart-breaking and erotic, a tale about the shattering of time and space. While its slow pace and strange side narratives may deter some, those who tune into the film’s frequency will find themselves sucked into the world of the Sooka and ready to find themselves in the nearest forest.
Summary
Kryptic is a monster movie unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
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