This is a remake of the 1980 film, which while I enjoyed the original I'm not so attached to it that despite my remake burn out was able to go into this film with an open mind. To say at 5'6" Elijah Wood strikes a less imposing figure than the 5'11" Joe Spinell from the original who did such a good job in the role that John Wayne Gacy wanted him to portray him on screen. So the biggest suspension of disbelief here is how Wood can over power some of these women who are not much smaller than he is. Wood however is a convincing enough crazy but he comes across like a cross between a mewling Norman Bates and Gullom.
P2 director Franck Khalfoun works well with the actors, all the performances are very natural to help maintain the gritty realism. A large majority of the movie is shot from Wood's point of view , not unlike a found footage film, with POV close ups on the killing, most of the gore is just scalping. I commend the movie from not bulking at the tone of the source film in trying to be more politically correct in toning down the violence towards women that many of the movies do these days , it keeps the women objectified though a little more dimensional than in the original film. The fact Wood's take on the character is so fittingly demasculinized , I think reflects on culturally where audiences are these days with emo vampires coming out of the coffins , a more sensitive serial while hearkening back to Norman Bates is nothing new, it does seem to flourish in todays over therapized mommy issue culture. But even with this element it think is more of a testament to what works in this movie because it was entertaining.
Sure we get the flash black elements , and these sequences remind me of the Heart is Deceitful Above all Things, with the coke whore mom, but these dont weigh the movie down and later when his ghost come back to haunt him, give those things a little more weight. Wood plays his character sympathetically enough to create an awkward tension where you feel the character can not help it and half the suspense much like Dexter is in the Man vs himself waiting for the other shoe to drop.
If you know the original then the mannequin elements are still intact and there are even certain iconic shoots that are recaptured down to the frame as needed. I think this is the way to do a remake, the different slant of the grainy cinematography still manages to invoke the dirty big city where a coat of crazy lurks under the sleaze. I think this movie is going to slip into the crack and be shamefully overlooked as the tortured serial killer crop of today could learn a lot from this film, it's the more painful awkwardness that Dexter lost after a few seasons combined with a darker and more depraved frosting that makes this work, I think it's the duty of horror films to make us squirm and feel uncomfortable more than just saying boo and this film succeeds where too many film makers over look it , leaving it for films like Enter the Void.
