By David Dent
Cheat directors Kevin Ignatius and Nick Psinakis have, for their latest offering, returned to the atmospheric stretches of Pennsylvania forest which featured in their last movie, 2022’s The Long Dark Trail. Cheat’s background centres on an urban legend, that of Clara Miller, a young girl killed by her philandering father back in 1888 as payback for her own slaying of dad’s mistress. Dead Ms Miller reputedly now stalks the town in which she met her demise, looking for victims, who are despatched in ways that makes their deaths look like suicide; likely targets are all those who have, or are related to those who have cheated on their other halves.
It goes without saying that in modern day Pennsylvania Clara is one busy spirit.
Young student Maeve (Corin Clay) arrives in the town, where there’s been an uptick in ‘suicides’; no shit Sherlock. Maeve is the first recipient of a scholarship provided by a fund set up by a couple who’s daughter Abby took their own life, and to keep costs low she has offered to lodge with the grieving parents. Except there’s only one of them at home; Abby’s mum has been indefinitely incarcerated in a local facility because of her poor mental health, leaving only dad Charlie (Michael Thyer) to provide bed, board and, before too long, sexy times with Maeve, whose own boyfriend is banged up in prison. Of course this means that Maeve and Charlie have CHEATED on their partners, thus receiving the attention of the ethereal Clara and ensuring that their days are numbered.
Other characters in Cheat also CHEAT on partners and receive Clara’s ghostly interventions. I use capitals for the word because the act is so loudly trumpeted as A VERY BAD THING (this is an extremely moral ghost story) that you wonder why anyone in town, where the legend is widely known, chooses to go extra curricular on their loved ones.The plot is just one of a number of problems with Cheat (God, that title!) which also includes the confusing corporeality of Clara (she’s basically a mass murderer; can’t she just be arrested?) and the sheer dumbness of pretty much everyone’s motivations. Coupled with a leaden script and some decidedly sub par acting, the only thing that Cheat really has going for it is the lovely woodland locations and co-director Ignatius’s soundtrack (which admittedly sounds a lot like Disasterpeace’s score for It Follows). Not good at all.
Bloody Flicks 