The Wretched came out on VOD and in limited theaters back on May 1, and due to the dearth of new theatrical releases at the time, it was actually #1 at the domestic box office for six weeks in a row. It's about a teenager named Ben who goes to live with his father after his parents split up, and while there, he encounters a dangerous creature that makes families forget their children and then kidnaps and eats them.
On the whole, this is probably my least favorite movie that I've liked all year (of any genre). It's enjoyable enough, but it has its fair share of problems. Most glaringly, the majority of the characters simply aren't very likeable. For example, one night the main character Ben is supposed to have dinner with his father and his father's new girlfriend, but he ditches them at the last minute and goes to a party instead. Then, about halfway through the party, he ditches the girl he went with and goes swimming with another girl. This is the guy you're supposed to be rooting for, but he's kind of a jerk, and you almost want the monster to kill him.
Similarly, the plot isn't anything to write home about either. For the most part, it's a very generic supernatural monster story. Some weird things start happening, the main character soon begins to notice some of them, then he learns about the creature, and eventually he tries to destroy it. That's not a bad plot, but it's not anything we haven't seen a million times before.
All that being said, though, I did like this movie, so despite these flaws, the pros still outweigh the cons. In particular, the horror elements are its saving grace. For example, the design of the monster is really cool, and whenever it's onscreen, even if it's just standing still without moving a muscle, the creepiness always amps up to some pretty fun levels. The co-directors find just the right camera angles to make this creature as scary as possible, and even when it's not front and center, they know how long to linger on the suspenseful shots to draw out the maximum amount of creepy anticipation without taking so long that they lose their audience.
Another cool thing about this movie is the way the monster goes about its business. It doesn't just want to quickly kidnap or kill people and then move on to the next victim. No, it makes families forget their kids so they have no clue that anything ever happened, and that adds a nice little wrinkle to the movie's rather familiar plot. Plus, as the creature does this, it possesses people and uses their bodies to get to the other family members, and that allows it to be creepy in an entirely new way. So even though the plot as a whole isn't super intriguing, the monster is interesting enough that you'll want to stick around to see what it does next.
But the best part of the movie, the part that really shines and tips the scales in its favor, is the third act. Like most horror films, the first two-thirds of this one are mainly plot-driven with a sprinkling of scares and suspense here and there, but after those first two acts are over, the movie goes all out on the horror. Just about every shot takes full advantage of the directors' skill with suspense and creepiness, so even if you find the first hour or so of the movie a bit boring, the final 20-30 minutes are well worth the wait.
At the end of the day, The Wretched isn't a must-watch, but it's not a waste of your time either. Nobody is going to call it a masterpiece or a triumph of horror storytelling (the way movies like The Invisible Man and Relic are), but it does have enough good genre elements that it's worth checking out. It gets by pretty much entirely on the strength of its monster and its scares, so if you like monster movies, you should give this one a shot.
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