The Gift

 THE GIFT

Director : Joel Edgerton

Year : 2015

Genre : Thriller

Rating : ****1/2

 

While Blumhouse is a studio that predominately releases franchise horror fare such as the 'Insidious', 'Paranormal Activity' and 'Sinister' movies, their latest offering 'The Gift' is, contrary to what the misleading trailers say, a much more psychological affair that dispenses with the traditional jump scares of old and instead utilizes a claustrophobic ambience and creeping paranoia to keep its audience members on the edge of their seats. Starring Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall and Joel Edgerton, 'The Gift' tells the story of a young married couple (Bateman and Hall) whose lives are turned completely upside down when an old school acquaintance from the husband's past (Edgerton) begins to force his way into their personal lives in increasingly intrusive and disturbing ways.

Directed with razor-sharp precision by Joel Edgerton (in his directorial debut), 'The Gift' sustains an incredibly tangible air of threat and danger throughout it's slightly overlong running time. Cinematographer Eduard Grau's simplistic widescreen camerawork emphasises the vast emptiness of the couples corridor-filled mansion to wonderfuly unsettling effect while Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaan's dischordant underscoring helps to keep the tension levels to a maximum. 

Edgerton himself is a fascinatingly oblique screen presence and he brings a lot of menace but also naive sympathy to his portrayal of the socially mafunctioned Gordo. It is a performance of quiet malevolence and while there no gore or graphic violence per se in 'The Gift', the sense of impending and relentless malice never lets up for an instant. However while Joel Edgerton is indeed brilliant, the usually comedic Jason Bateman is the star of the show as a man whose past misdemeanors hold the secret to Gordo's erratic behavior. As someone who experienced bullying first hand through most of his teenage years, the second half of 'The Gift' affected me in a way that no movie has before. Yes it is indeed creepy, regularly uncomfortable and at points nail-bitingly intense but in the chilled bloodstream of 'The Gift', there is a stern message to those who feel that it is perfectly acceptable to have complete control over another human being without consequence. Joel Edgerton is a formidable talent in front of and behind the camera and I look forward to seeing what he will do next with great anticipation.