By Melissa Antoinette Garza
I stumbled across this under HULU’s, HALLOWEEN category. They call it HULUWEEN. I don’t call it that because that name is stupid. Despite the bad pun, HULU is delivering some productions that look rather promising. INTO THE DARK: THE BODY (2018) is one such example.
Though 82 minutes long, this isn’t considered a movie. Instead, it is the first episode in a HULU ORIGINAL horror anthology series.
Wilkes (Tom Bateman) is a suave and charming hitman who murders his victims on Halloween. When people show up at the place of the crime, he is unable to make a safe escape. Instead, he hits the streets with the dead body wrapped in plastic wrap. He runs into some people headed to a Halloween party. They think the corpse is part of the costume. Alan (David Hull) wants to make an impression and thinks the body would do it. He invites Wilkes to go with him and the killer reluctantly agrees.
There, he meets Maggie (Rebecca Rittenhouse). She immediately is taken in by him and gets him a drink. They make strange small talk about her costume and gender equality. Admittedly, Maggie is very affected, but that’s actually the point. She’s supposed to be a caricature. She’s an exaggeration of the way many female horror characters are written. She talks about mansplaining and goes on about sexism when the situations don’t constitute it. It’s amusing and Rittenhouse pulls off the parody well.
Soon, Wilkes becomes irritated and starts murdering the people who brought him there. Maggie sees the whole thing, but isn’t put off. She’s actually into it confessing she has always wanted to murder someone. The rest of the party-goers, including Alan, are freaked out by her response. As Wilkes goes on about life and death, Maggie buys into his psychotic philosophy.
Maggie is honestly the best character. In one of the best scenes, she looks in the mirror and gives herself a pep-talk. She assures herself that she’s doing the right thing. Her unbalanced attempts at logic, make for the biggest laugh in the film. I like crazy girls so I adore her.
When the host of the party, Jack (Ray Santiago) uses a trick to lock Maggie and Wilkes in the room, he, Alan and Dorothy (Aurora Perrineau) grab the body and make an escape for it. Before Jack leaves he does attempt to warn everyone that a murderer is on the loose, but being that it’s Halloween, everyone thinks it’s a joke.
Maggie helps Wilkes escape and takes off with him completely enthralled by his evil deeds. He isn’t sure what to make of it at first, but needs the help. She keeps referring to them as a “we,” but he’s not jumping on board so quickly. His mind is simply on getting away with murder and getting paid.
When Maggie is shot accidentally in the arm by an officer, Wilkes slits his throat. Some women may see that as a red flag, but not Maggie. She dives in even deeper. Rather than escaping when she has the chance, she runs after him and offers to track down the trio who stole the body. Soon, Maggie proves her skills and usefulness by hacking into a computer at small bar.
Meanwhile, Jack, Dorothy and Alan begin to panic and argue with one another when they get a text from Wilkes. Not wanting to get set up for the murder, they decide to dispose of the body and escape the wrath of Wilkes.
Wilkes, on he other hand, is sidetracked and put into a frenzy when he finds out that the man who hired him to kill knows the job was botched. The customer gives him two hours to clean up his mess or face serious consequences. In the end, the conclusion is predictable yet effective and satisfying.
I was actually quite impressed with this. I was expecting a straight-up horror film, but I got something that sits somewhere in-between CLUB DREAD (2004) and SCREAM (1996). It’s completely self-aware and pokes fun at all the tropes and one-dimensional characters within modern horror.
The dialogue, reactions and behaviors of all the criminals are hilarious. In one scene, Jack is in a church and he asks “Sweet baby Jesus” to let him live. Santiago brings that scene home. I laughed thru the entire prayer.
Alan, also, has some great lines and delivery. He instructs Dot and Jack, how to dispose of a body, based on the rules of BREAKING BAD (2008), and the way in which Hull displays his incredulity and fury is quite entertaining.
Dorothy strikes gold when Alan tries to kiss her and she responds with the only proper response ever given in a horror film. She questions immediately why he would try to do that when being chased by a murderer. Perrineau’s sarcastic demeanor throughout provided many of the highlights within the production.
Of course, Rebecca Rittenhouse did a terrific job as Maggie. Maggie is a cool mix of blind loyalty and superb strength. She wants to go for the ride with Wilkes, but it’s quite clear that if given the opportunity, she’d run the whole show.
Tom Bateman shined as Wilkes. He carried a genuine gravitas and confidence in the beginning, but expertly showed how it was a facade that diminished as the cops and the customer moved in on him.
If you have HULU, give this one a go. It’s not the greatest film ever made, but I went in with zero expectations and was pleasantly surprised. If you have a Halloween party with tweens, teens or those just too scared to watch something really terrifying, this is a solid choice to have available.
Scared Stiff Rating: 6/10
