The Forever Room Review-A Great Movie With A Great Title And Little Else

The Forever Room by writer Vickie Hicks and director Kevin Hicks has promise. The title and core concept are intriguing. But, unfortunately, the film doesn’t live up to the promise of the title. Instead, it is a rehashed bit of fluff with little beyond a few unnerving moments and a whole lot of needless confusion.

Claire (Samantha Valletta) wakes up chained to her bed in a locked room and no memory of how she got there. One woman claiming to be her mother(Vickie Hicks) promises she has kept her there to keep her safe. As Claire tries to discover who she is and why she is there, she is haunted by ghosts who may be in her head. What is real and why is she being held are the biggest questions she needs answered before it is too late.

I’m a fan of single-room horror. Intimate horror works because the story and the actors convey the same abject terror anyone would have in those circumstances. It is relatable and secretive. Like waking from a terrible nightmare that lingers, it can affect you long after the fear subsides. I also love a good twist ending. Surprising reveals made M. Night Shyamalan a Hollywood golden boy even when those denouements don’t completely land. There is a massive market for those movies if they are done well. If the pacing is meticulous, direction intentional, and acting amazing, plot holes and obvious tells are forgiven. Otherwise, those movies feel manipulative at best and superficial at worst.

John Cusack’s Identity works because we grew to care about Cusack’s Ed. The entire cast is spectacular, in fact, with very clear good guys and bad guys. Sure the protagonists were flawed, but they were sympathetic and likable. So when the reveal comes at the end, it is a gut punch because it is both shocking and heartbreaking. Unfortunately, the same can not be said of The Forever Room that tries way too hard to shock us but instead leaves us ambivalent.

The Hicks family, whose previous films include Dead Air, was more effective because the twist is better thought out and the independent filmmaking more effective. Horror doesn’t need a big budget to hit hard when the scares are cerebral and not gore-dependent. There is no fear aside from a few genuinely creepy moments, especially involving a white hand and a little boy.

Claire’s big secret at the end never quite gels because there is no urgency anywhere inThe Forever Room. We don’t care if she gets out because she doesn’t seem to care. Her emotional swings don’t ring true because there is little beyond baseline wonder and irritation. Claire should be beyond mad, terrified out of her mind, and desperate. Instead, she is flat and barely worried. Valletta tries valiantly to ring something from the lifeless script, but there isn’t enough to work with.

The script, which does improve on the too heavy dialogue that Dead Air suffered from, fails to flesh out more of Claire’s story, which would have given her character arch more resonance. I appreciate the loss of recessive expository, but not all dialogue is bad. A little more meat on the bones would have corrected some of these issues.

Her supporting cast, except for Vickie Hicks(Helen), goes through the motions. They fail to drive the tension or define the story. Most of the acting choices skew to the school of huffs and eye rolls, which only work for a preteen girl. If you aren’t, they come across as obnoxious reactions not fully connected to the emotions that wrought them. Vickie Hicks is competent as Helen, who brings some authenticity to the story.

In the end, The Forever Room is little more than a great title and a few creepy scares. It is on VOD everywhere you stream movies now.