Adipocere (2024) (USA)

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lo-fi tackling of a mummy’s curse comes off like an ode to Skinamarink but way more focused and intriguing than that plodding piece of wasted time. A bad ass opening features a deep, malicious narration sharing the history of an Egyptian evil over the image of the kind of mummy you’d see gracing the cover of a Goosebumps book. So… it fucking rocks. Henry is an asshole. He’s pretty much tanked his conservative podcast he has with his girlfriend Brittany by cheating on her with a wealthy journalist named Dorothy. But they’re on the outs too because, as I said, Henry is an asshole. Dorothy left a priceless necklace at Henry’s home which he returns to her in the mail along with a strongly worded letter admonishing her. He’s that kind of guy. Henry’s home is broken into by someone covered in dirty rags and this has him releasing a recording of audio his microphone managed catch. After claiming he would have done something if he hadn’t been suffering sleep paralysis, he discovers (thanks to a comment on his posting) that the voice is Arabic and it’s saying something about a necklace. He thinks Dorothy was behind it, and after making a threatening phone call, he gets sick and has to back out of the podcast recording. Brittany is annoyed with him but says she’ll do it. Henry goes from feverish to deathly ill, throwing up blood and fucking up his eyeball. The necklace ties deep into Egyptian history, dangerous gods, a serial killer and a curse that looks be set in motion for our vile “protagonist”. The issue with anything that holds Skinamarink as an inspiration is that it’s going to remind me of Skinamarink, which I consider one the most overrated films to ever hit the horror scene. And even at just a minute over an hour, there’s drag. But whereas Skinamarink felt like nothing but drag around ten minutes of semi-solid terror, Adipocere at least holds more interest by giving me a glimpse at a deteriorating character who has fallen into a completely horrifying situation well outside any realm of expected karma. It’s a matter of having someone to invest in as opposed to two whispering nothings that leave no impact. It’s a flawed film, but it’s way better than its micro-budget should have allowed for. Especially considering the subject matter it decided to tackle.