Charlotte (Frightfest 2024) review

By Terry Sherwood

It has been said that We create our monsters.  The beast is someone familiar with someone you know or have known.  It is often tough to confront issues of nature in genre film and kudos for those who try. This is not a part of the Hearths of Evil genre of Horror films in which the family is dysfunctional to the point of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). 

Charlotte the Movie or simply Charlotte is the story of a young girl, Charlotte (Georgia Conlan) and an older man Roy (Dean Kilbey.)  Fleeing from an abusive parent, Charlotte leaves after school, refusing to return home.  In a sort of play on Oliver Twist, the unwelcome waif to the poor house or sold into servitude and wearing her school uniform, she walks with no access to a phone, looking for someone willing to take her in. Her travels take her to a huge stone home and Roy who allows her to stay the night,

As the story progresses, we discover more about Charlotte and Roy’s relationship as it changes. Events that make one wonder why Charlotte ran away from home. Is there more to Charlotte’s truth? Is Roy’s good-natured behaviour a mask for something more sinister 

Drawing inspiration perhaps unconsciously from the film not as intense as the original nasty I Spit on Your Grave (1978), Revenge (2017) or the original Martyrs (2008) or the ultra-violent French film High Tension (2003), instead, the film reminds one of a low-key version of Audition (1999) casting itself as a psychological Thriller.

The key is to get by the implausible of a young girl walking to find a place to stay which is a strong point to the conclusion. Suspense so bult effectively with Roy’s suspicious use of a Polaroid camera that he tends to sneak around with. 

One is sledgehammered over the head with Roy as a legal caseworker visits him who runs through protocols of no internet access, no contact with certain people and other rules he must follow, tipping the fact that he is a criminal of some sort.   One also wonders why in moments when Charlotte wanders downstairs for a drink of water dressed in a revealing night outfit meets Roy who is there to help her. Is this a moment of Hitchcockian moment of intent when the audience knows there is a bomb under the table while the people talk or something else?  Why would a young girl suddenly run to a man she just met when she is overcome with her first period?  Charlotte and Roy sit close, and he tells her that ‘she is a woman’.   Is there something more to these story beats which there is as the climax comes on like the edge of a knife  

Charlotte is filmed episodically with many scenes going to black and fading to the next giving it a chapter-like feel. Budget and the pandemic played a role in this film as many cause funding waits, restriction waits and perhaps other things making challenges to an already challenging medium.  At times one feels manipulated by the structure of the film as the details fill themselves, which is made up for with the performances of a small committed cast.  

Georgia Conlon undergoes a metamorphosis of sorts in the film playing a 12-year-old schoolgirl when she is 24. Dean Kilbey in the role of Roy, does well with the happy jovial good Samaritan cause in something he doesn’t realize as his past rears its ugly head of deception.  His sexual proclivities are hinted at for the most part except in some moments.   

For the most part, Charlotte and Roy have good onscreen chemistry that would benefit more from a minimal set and stage rather than a film. There also is an annoying subplot with school mates of Charlotte being harassed by bullies and befriending each other. The drawback is many of their moments are one-dimensional with Charlotte being hyper-vigilant eyes staring or crying.  Roy becomes apologetic, and smiley does not give us the undercurrent of sinister that plays in so much with the conclusion.  The story becomes the character of Charlotte, not the situation she is placed in.  Justice is served but at a loss of civilized morals  

Charlotte is a brave film touching on many issues of safety even in the home with supposed friends or relatives.  Small cast and crew with Georgia Conlan and Martin Hardwick doing everything except making the tea for the crew which likely did anyway.  Ultimately, it’s hard to shake that person. I have no idea why he gets money M. Knight  Shyamalan style in some moments. Worth a look for a dangerous and yet all-true vision that occurs too many times in the News.

Charlotte screens as part of Frightfest 2024.