It’s Day 7 on our malevolent movie march, and we wrap up our first week of horror with the demonic thriller Pyewacket. A teen, Leah (Nicole Munoz), is struggling with dealing with her mother (Laurie Holden, who played Andrea on The Walking Dead), who in turn is struggling with the death of her husband. The mother makes the decision to have them move from their home, and they rent a house n the woods. Upset by this, Leah decides to summon a demon by the name of Pyewacket to dispose of her mother. She regrets her actions, but now things have been set in motion, and she needs to reverse the spell before the demon completes its deadly task. 7/10 stars
The film starts off as more of a teen angst driver, with both Munoz (Sorority Murder) and Holden delivering believable but predictable performances. Director Adam MacDonald (Backcountry) wisely holds off revealing the demon, and when the reveal does come it’s done so in a suitably creepy fashion. The suspense is built nicely, and the mother-daughter drama is handled well. Most horror film fans will see where this is going from the start, and it’s that predictability that keeps this from being better than what it is. Still, it’s got a nice creepy vibe and builds the suspense well enough to hold your attention, so it’s worth a watch. Now showing on Hulu and is available on Blu-ray/DVD.
