Twisted is directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and the cast includes Djimon Hounsou, Lauren LaVera, Mia Healey, Gina Philips, Neal McDonough, and Alicia Witt.
My Thoughts on Twisted
Twisted ends up being the kind of horror that makes you pay attention even when you don’t want to, and with Darren Lynn Bousman attached as director, that is usually a clear warning that things are going to get a little messy and a little precise at the same time.
You can tell the kind of director he is within the first ten minute - the lighting is deliberate, the camera doesn’t just move, it sneaks around corners, and there’s a sense that someone wanted to be in control of exactly how your unease is constructed.
Lauren LaVera (Terrifer 3) stars in the film, and she isn't just there to scream and react, as while there is screaming, there’s also layers of thought and hesitation in her performance where she doesn’t overplay anything, but she doesn’t disappear into neutrality either.
At times, she’s sharp and tense, and at others she’s quiet, as if she’s measuring every move and its consequences, and I liked watching her work, even when the story around her tried to wander into cliché territory.
Djimon Hounsou is a bit of a different beast though, as he doesn’t dominate in the usual horror sense, but he makes you notice him without trying, and his performance was quietly commanding, where there’s a patience to his performance, and he provides a sort of steadying force in a film that otherwise flits between tension, psychological discomfort, and moments of obvious shock.
It’s not all measured though, as there’s occasional overreach, moments where the writing tries too hard to be subtle or profound, and Hounsou shoulders them better than the material deserves, as the story itself isn’t anything groundbreaking.
We get moments where the beats feel familiar, and certain twists are easy to see coming if you’ve watched enough horror films to know the common rhythms, but I didn’t mind entirely because the execution is careful enough to make those moments less irritating than they could be.
The biggest issue is some of the horror set pieces feel like they were taken from a catalog of genre tropes, and while some moments do work, but they don’t feel exactly inspired, as there’s an odd tension floating in the air between the film trying to be familiar and also trying to surprise, and I think I would have preferred it to lean harder into its more original ideas rather than recycling familiar moments.
The atmosphere is fine though, not just in the obvious horror beats, but in the spaces in between, and a lot of it suggests observation, and it all feels like a kind of horror that watches you as much as you watch it, where the music is also used sparingly, which is a relief, as too often, horror films rely on scoring to manufacture tension, but here, the absence of music in certain scenes made the tension sharper.
Twisted reminds me that horror can still be methodical without feeling dull, and while I didn’t expect it to be subtle, and it isn’t always, but it’s deliberate, where it balances the familiar with the slightly off-kilter, and it does it without apologizing.
I thought the film worked OK, yes it has rough edges, it has moments of predictability, and some of the horror beats are textbook, but it also has performances and pacing that make those flaws forgivable.
Just don't go in expecting too much and you might find certain things to enjoy.