Glorious

As I watched this, I kept wondering where this was going. How would they stretch out a concept that, on paper, seems like it couldn’t fill a short film? A guy pulls off at a rest stop to catch his breath and deal with the emotions of the end of a relationship. In the bathroom, he runs into an erudite, polite, inquisitive voice from the stall next to him. And it quickly becomes apparent the voice is more than human. And has trapped our main character Wes in the bathroom. A lot of this movie hinges on conversation between Wes and the unseen Ghat, and they could not have gotten a better person to voice Ghat than JK Simmons. A magnificent actor anyway, as a disembodied voice of both awesome power and humble consideration, Simmons brings a weight to the role few others could have without coming off pompous or grandiose. For 90% of the movie being in a small, dirty bathroom, you’d think good direction would be a hard thing to imprint on a movie, but credit to Rebekah McKendry for using the space and finding different angles to explore it, without coming off as cute or overly clever. The movie really comes together under her watch in every department; the lighting, blocking, score, and performances all blend in a great balance. And the movie throws in some great twists and turns, some funny and some that reframe events in ways you may not see coming. One of those twists alone gave this movie a full star. If I have to give any dings on the score, it’s that sometimes, the pacing is a little too slow. Like I mentioned at the top, sometimes you may wonder how the movie is gonna fill its runtime, and there are moments where it feels like it’s dragging its feet. Something always comes along to freshen things up, but some of the gaps in between can test patience. But on the whole, this was a great surprise. It brings some laughs, some moments of pure shock, and one hell of an ending. 2022 has brought the goods for horror, and this horror comedy keeps the hit train rolling.