A couple (Lonnie Abbleby, Becky Scholtec) and their baby daughter
travel the countryside when one of their tyres blows. The husband goes to
fix the tyre - but is viciously attacked by someone or something and
gravely injured. His wife manages to drag him back to the car, but when
she wants to go for help, he wouldn't allow her to leave the car, even if
he's dying, because of whatever's out there, and the situation gets
creepier by the minute. Ultimately, the wife decides to ignore her
husband's wishes, leave the car and ... next day, their two bodies are
found, the baby's missing. There was a witness to the whole scene
though, Jacob (James Lukenbill jr) - who has since fallen into a catatonic
state though, too shocked by what he ahs seen. Still, the local sheriff
(Ben Rollins) and deputy (Shawn McAninch) manage to get Jacob to lead them
to a house that seems to have to do with the incident - and where they are
joined by psychic Wendy (Annette Duffy) and writer Abby (Catherine
Arabella) plus cameraman (Zack Williams). Things start to get out of hand
when the sheriff wants to force Jacob to lead them into the house, but
Jacob is scared shitless to a degree that he grabs the deputy's gun and
shoots himself dead. That's bad enough, but even worse that inside the
house it looks as if a Satanic ritual has been taking place, using the
blood of the two homeowners, whose corpses are found in the kitchen. Now's
the time to get reinforcements of course, but neither cellphones nor the
policecar's radio work, and none of the cars will start. What's worse
though is there is something in the house that makes people want to kill
themselves or kill others ... and suddenly our heroes drop like flies -
and the last one left standing is in for a particularly gruesome surprise
... Helpless is one scary little film, basically because
it focuses on being just that - so there are no long explanations what's
going on, subplots or parallel narratives, just one main narrative thread
conceived to freak out the audience. That's not to say Helpless is
simplistic in its storytelling though or sloppy when it comes to
explanations, it's just really focused on delivering the goods - and in a
subtle way too, there is little in terms of graphic gore. Now add to that
characters with some depth played by a very competent ensemble cast, and
nice and atmospheric camerawork, and you've got yourself a pretty great
horror movie. Recommended!
|