Macabre…ish Horror Review: Wounds

Wounds, 2019/ 1 hr 36 min.

The morning after a fight in Will’s (Armie Hammer) bar where Eric (Brad William Henke) get’s stabbed in the face, he sees messages on a phone he found on the floor, from someone named Garrett (Alex Biglane). Last night this Garret said he was afraid of something in the tunnel, this morning he sends a pic of a pile of bloody teeth.

Will later visits Eric and finds his face infected, Eric says he’s been having nightmares. Checking the phone again he sees pictures have gotten worse and there’s video, of a corpse and heads surrounded by roaches. Carrie (Dakota Johnson), his girlfriend, sees a book in the background called The Translation of Wounds and is curious about it.

Will calls the number these texts are coming from and hears an inhuman wail and nothing else. Afterward gets a text informing him that he’s been chosen and that he’s being followed. The phone changes in his hand, roaches flood out of it and Will throws it out the window.

Later on, Will hangs out with an ex (Zazie Beets) and after he’s rejected and everything is weird at home. Carrie is acting odd, he sees a strange text on her phone that he did not send and he senses someone in his house. He finds a man at his table who warns him he has invited evil into his life. Then Will wakes up.

Carrie, she’s been looking into the book, The Translation of Wounds and went down the rabbit hole online that led to a tunnel. Will finds her sitting at her desk, staring at the tunnel and wasting away. Not even getting up to go to the restroom. Will puts her in the bath and the water turns black but she kind of snaps out of it and they break up.

Then he remembers Eric. Eric is in bad shape but doesn’t want him to stay but has a gift for him and it will get him killed. Death surrounded by a sea of roaches.

This movie started off strong and went to strange places but seemingly lost steam and just ended. The cinematography and effects were pretty good, the pacing was good too but I think the horror was second to a romance drama between 3 people. There is some blood and gore, a lot of bugs and some good jump scares. There were some interesting moments that were abandoned to return to the drama. And the actor I really wanted to see was a voice on the phone, Doug (Martin Bats Bradford).

This is a movie of a lot of unanswered questions. I wouldn’t watch this again but I would watch a sequel or prequel, in the hopes it might answer some questions. It’s not a bad movie it just doesn’t feel like horror.