Let Her Out (2017) Movie Review
Written By: FR
Edited By: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Director: Cody Calahan
Writers: Cody Calahan, Adam Seybold
Producers: Nat Abraham, Ira Levy, Michael McGuigan, Peter Williamson, et. al.
Date Released: October 20, 2017
Cast:
Alanna LeVierge as Helen
Nina Kiri as Molly
Adam Christie as Ed
Kate Fenton as Dr. Headly
Michael Lipka as Roman
Rating = 3/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
Let Her Out follows a young bike courier who was involved in a traumatic accident. During her recovery, she suffered black-outs, hallucinations and night -terrors which became increasingly disturbing. Her medical examination revealed a benign tumor that is a remnant of a “vanishing twin” in the utero. Her evil twin has slowly controlled her subconscious which eventually caused her to be a danger to herself and her friend.
Gore Factor
This has a lot of blood and guts. The main character stabbed the man who pursued her with a cutter and eventually cutting his torso open. A woman pulls stitches out of her arm and reopens a wound. She pulls a severed finger out of the wound. It is quite disturbing. The end of the psychotic episode produced a roomful of blood and guts.
The Grave Review
Let Her Out (2017) is an engaging horror film that places its emphasis on the main character rather than the scares and thrills. Helen is a well-rounded character who makes you feel the struggle she goes through as she questions her grasp on sanity and reality. Actress Alanna LaVierge succeeded in creating an emotional investment into Helen’s well-being and identity crisis. She made Helen’s struggle believable as she frantically tried to keep everything together. Let Her Out really is a character study in grief, tragedy and identity.
The film also has plenty of scares and gruesome imagery, especially in the third act of the film. The majority of the movie plays as a psychological horror as Helen’s mind slowly gets taken over and she questions more and more of her actions and thoughts. While the third act plays a little more into traditional horror tropes, it still creates an unsettling feeling in the viewer for Helen’s plight.
Director Cody Calahan does a great job creating an eerie atmosphere throughout the film and uses the imagery to his advantage. He creates stunning visuals, particularly of the city’s landscape at night. One aspect that also left an impression was the lighting. Let Her Out’s eeriness is helped in a large way due to the lighting, using a red and blue motif throughout the film. The lighting really adds the exclamation mark to the scene and you can tell just how much work went into the design and look of the production.
The movie has outstanding make-up effects. In addition to the bloody climax, there was also a fantastic little set piece on a subway platform. It was the perfect example of effects, camerawork and performance coming together to create something bad ass.
All in all, Let Her Out (2017) tells an interesting story which combines horror and psychological thriller while boasting some great, and gruesome, visuals. LaVierge and Kiri’s dynamic is believable and relatable, but it is LaVierge who steals the movie, developing Helen’s identity crisis in a scary and emotional manner. That and the direction of Calahan and his team make the movie a must-see flick for horror fans.
So, despite its shaky start, the film has redeemed itself by the end. While it’s true we’ve seen these themes played out before, there was a cold, dark and yet colorful coat of paint on this that made it its own beast.
Because of the foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives Let Her Out (2017) three graves out of five graves.
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