February
Directed by Oz Perkins
Screenplay by Oz Perkins
USA, Canada 2015
There is a slowly emerging trend in the horror genre, that of the slow burn. One hears “it’s a slow burn,” more and more as the years go by. While certianly not originating in 2001, the term was certainly used for films like Brad Anderson’s Session 9, and one is almost guaranteed to hear it with this year’s February.
February begins its slow burn in an all girl’s boarding school, where we are introduced to Kat, a young and awkward girl who, while not explicitly discussed, seems to have some sort of developmental or social disability. When she is addressed by her teacher or priest, her responses are deeply thought out, and she is delayed on the uptake. In contrast, we have Rose, a pretty upperclassman who is socially deft, and easily manipulative. The two girls, who otherwise may never have anything to do with each other, are suddenly thrown into the mix when they are the last girls out of the school during an early spring break dismissal. Rose has managed to delay her parents arrival so that she may address a pregnancy scare with her secret boyfriend, while Kat’s parents have just, mysteriously, not shown up to fetch her.
When the girls are allowed to stay in their respective dorms for one more night, it becomes clear that things are not what they seem within the hallowed halls of the school, and a dangerous and evil presence seems to overshadow everything.
As the audience is just beginning to piece together what is going on with Kat and Rose, a third story is inserted into the film, involving a girl named Joan who seems to be either lost or running away, and is stranded at a bus station. She is taken under wing by a man, whose motives are unclear, and a wife who is cold and dismissive to Joan’s plight.
As the film progresses, the relationship between these stories becomes more and more clear, until the inevitable moment when they are finally brought into sharp focus, and their relation to each other becomes obvious. It is within these moments that, unfortunately, lies February’s deepest flaw.
As the audience is largely left guessing how Joan, Kat, and Rose will ultimately be relevant to each other, it almost forces viewers out of the movie as they try and peice together what exactly is happening. The ambiguity of the A and B plots is obviously intentional, as the answer is a reveal within the film, but things are almost too ambiguous. For example, it’s actually not clear what the actual order of events in the film are as things unfold in, which, for the most part, is told in a non-linear fashion. Instead of showing things in a strict beginning-middle-end timeline, the story involves three vignettes based on the perspective of the three girls. So we don’t know if Joan being found outside the bus stop happens before or after Kat and Rose have a frank discussion about Rose sneaking out to break up with her boyfriend. We’re not immediately told where the couple who is assisting Joan is heading or why. Joan bears a marginal resemblence to Kat, physically, which may or may not be intentional. None of this is made clear.
All the answers are revealed at the end of the film, but without the ambiguity, the film probably wouldn’t be entirely functional. However, at the same time, things are almost a little too ambiguous, and movie goers may not be given quite enough to stay interested in the narrative for the entire feature.
With all that being said, there are some genuinely creepy moments in the film. For the most part it’s strongly atmospheric and there is a sense of dread felt when a character hears something bumping in the night, but the biggest scares and deepest suspense is only felt in the final third of the movie — which for many audiences will be too little too late.
Slow burns can be a hard sell, especially when mainstream audiences seem to gravitate more toward jump scares and evenly paced action. But the more discerning cinephiles, who prefer independent films by filmmakers like Brad Anderson or Ti West, may find the film more to their liking.
Trevor T. Trujillo
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