Macabre…ish Horror Review: Listen Carefully
Listen Carefully, 2024/ 1 hr 22 min.
Newly minted Junior Vice President, Andy McNeary (Ryan Barton-Grimley), is also a new parent and with all the new responsibilities comes his tendency to fall asleep at his desk and having weird nightmares. Andy dreams he’s being hunted by a group of masked people.
One evening he has baby Abby all to himself, while his wife, Allie (Simone Barton-Grimley) goes out, but something happens. Andy falls asleep, has odd dreams and when he wakes up, he hears Abby crying over the baby monitor but when he checks her crib, she’s gone.
Over the baby monitor a male voice (Ari Schneider) drawls out, just as he’s dialing 911. The voice says he has Abby and he seems to know a lot about Andy and his movements. The voice demands money, money that Andy does not have but this stranger knows Andy works at a bank and has access to it. He also knows Andy has been up to other things, illicit things, at work and uses that info to his advantage.
The man demands $250,000 and directs Andy to keep the baby monitor with him and go to the bank and make it happen. It’s going to be a long night because in order to make this happen, Andy has to make withdrawals from ATMs all around town. And while this is happening he is fielding calls from Allie and bank security.
At one, he has a setback as he’s running back to the car, he drops the money and some random guy picks it up. On top of that he’s been spooked by a cop. When it’s time to go to the drop, it’s convoluted and the directives are a little ridiculous and the voice is getting more aggressive. When Andy spots a baby carrier, Abby isn’t in it, instead, it’s another baby monitor.
But something very strange happens, Andy appears to be somewhere else, drenched in blood, this is either some kind of mental break or the worst episode of sleep walking ever because there are a stack of bodies somewhere and everyone was killed with a hammer. And then Andy ‘fazes’ back to the sport where the baby basket is. The voice tells him to drop the money and get the baby but there is no baby.
Another monitor, with another man’s voice on it. The two men on the monitors vie for Andy’s attention the original one promises to cut off Abby’s fingers but Andy opts to listen to and follow the direction of the new voice. This voice tells him the other voice is lying and promises to help him. And things just get more bizarre.
At another drop, he’s told to wait, if he doesn’t then he’s going to blow it. But Andy can’t wait, he runs up to what is sure to be Abby and instead he finds an armload of baby monitors inside a bassinet. Someone is messing with him. And on top of that, the same cop turns up again. This time to mock him and making it clear he is in on, whatever this, is. The cop get’s in Andy’s car and Andy begs, the baby cries on all those monitors and then—Andy wakes up. He’s sweating heavily and on his couch. He jumps up and runs to Abby’s room and once again, she’s not there. But do you know who is? That cop!
He’s standing over her crib and continuing to mock him about how he blew it. Andy leaps at the cop as he laughs and strangles him. He begs for his daughter back. Soon the cop is dead. Then—Andy wakes up again!
He runs into Abby’s room and his wife is there, holding Abby. She wants to know where he’s been and why he’s injured.
They go to the police department, their name is called and that same cop is there. Andy kind of spirals into a weird memory loop. Then he wakes up again. This time, at home in bed, next to his wife. When he gets up to check on Abby, she’s right there in her crib.
Then he returns to his bed. He’s clearly troubled. Once again Abby’s cries wake him and he hears a man’s voice…is this a dream?
This psychological horror was directed (written and starred) by Ryan Barton-Grimley. This movie wasn’t bad though I could tell this director was wearing a lot of hats. But the cinematography was good, some of this was very eerie, that cop, for instance. There were some very mysterious and very bloody scenes. This was entertaining.