By David Dent
There’s a whiff of EC comics towards the end of David James’s debut feature, yet another variation on the classic weird story ‘The Monkey’s Paw’, but it’s a long road to get to the good stuff.
Matt (Patrick Taft) and his wife Claire (Brandi Botkin) are young and in love; the latter is battling with advanced cancer and a limited time to live.
Like any person in love, Matt would do anything to save Claire, so when the opportunity presents itself to do that, via a deal made with a random guy, he accepts. The ‘cure’ comes in the shape of a large, unshapely bag with mysterious contents. Like all good ‘Monkey’s Paw’ variations it comes with its own rules, requiring Matt to stick the bag in a cupboard, undisturbed for three days, and in no way to peek at what’s inside.
The implications of the bag and its impact on Matt and Claire form the backbone to this story, which enjoys the woozy narrative of the indie horror flick; visions occur, stuff happens, but it’s all rather unclear.
There’s a couple of things which hold Bag of Lies back from being really good; one is its length. As well as being far too long for its content, the film struggles with pacing, and the slow buildup of tension I had hoped for didn’t really arrive, despite some great sotto voce performances by the two leads and supporting cast. The second was the soundtrack; it’s the kind of synth and music concrete score which accompanies a lot of indie flicks these days, and there were moments when its portentous tones clashed with the laid-back pacing of events on screen. I liked the general mood of the piece, though, but it didn’t grip as it should have.
Bag of Lies is available now on VOD platforms.
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