"Wounds" turned out to be the kind of horror that's right up my isle, unsettling, moody, even gnarly & with occult themes involved. Despite its one major flaw which got everyone throwing around the well below average ratings, I'm here to defend it.
"Wounds" can be best described as a mood piece, it's a slow burning drama for the most part and the aforementioned flaw is that there are no fireworks at the end of it - We'll return to that later. I was already satisfied with the movie in the first 10 minutes, many qualities like great acting, good dialogue, effective atmosphere & pleasant cinematography manifested themselves and stayed till the end. I'm not going to spoil the story, I think it's for the best you know no more than what the synopsis and trailer shows you. To describe it a little, the story is quite narrow, mostly revolves around Armie Hammers character and his, I'd like to say, descended into madness. I have a huge love for occult themes in horror movies & rarely anything like that comes along, the last I remember was a horror indie "Pyewacket". "Wounds" strong suit is definitely the legitimately creepy atmosphere, supported by solid performances, top tier sound design & well done fx, some of it practical. Visually I can't pick on it at all. I enjoyed the fact that a lot of the creepiness factor was in the clashes between characters, just in the conversations, tension and the impending doom can be felt, if you let it. Then comes the ending which, yes, felt underwhelming, but I can't disregard the whole movie because of it & that's why I didn't give it more than a 7. I would've. A lot of movies that I can call mood pieces - a lot of them have little to no substance, they sacrifice plot for the sake of atmosphere building. Personally, atmosphere is one the most important parts in movies for me & sure, if it also has substance, even better.
"Wounds" is a flawed movie with an objectively highly underwhelming and cut-off ending, but before that there are 90 minutes filled with dark atmosphere, dread and quality filmmaking in almost all its aspects. I enjoyed it a lot. My rating: 7/10.
