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The premise is
creaky right off the bat. Take the secret Templar brotherhood and
replace it with the X-Men and the rest writes itself. But “The Wicked”
was entertaining to sit through in spite of that obvious caveat. Why?
Well, because director Sal Ciavarello creates such a visual style to his
film that the formula story is often pushed aside thanks to the strong
performances and successful pacing. A satanic cult is going up against a
secret cabal within the local government that has outlawed Satanism.
Ciavarello is not without his directorial talents pulling off some great
tension and suspense on such a small budget. Ciavarello is able to pull
a lot out of the limited locations and draws a world of complex
conspiracy, a seedy underground and magical battles that look quite
dazzling on screen. Most of the performances are strong, if anything and
Ciavarello has potential to offer some great B movies for audiences. A
Bronxite himself, Ciavarello knows how to unfold his universe, and I
look forward to seeing what he can do on a larger budget.
I often found
myself screaming at the screen, and for that Ciavarello should
really have rectified the holes. I never quite understood what the
entire preamble in the opening credits was all about (I rewound it
twice) and then things just get worse as there are many unanswered
questions. What promise did Grace make to her father? Who is hunting
who again? What is Grace looking for? And why was Jacking the Joke
Man in this movie? Granted, director Ciavarello has explained that
he’s a huge fan of Howard Stern, but this revelation in his website
leads to one of the worst scenes out of the entire movie.
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Okay, I
wouldn’t say worse, but when Jackie the Joke man appears to
deliver rapid fire dialogue in a scene that has zero
relevance to the movie, you wonder why Ciavarello is even
wasting his time. The Jackie the Joke man scene was smug,
self-referential and pulled me out of the narrative
completely; I had no idea why it was even in the movie
beyond getting a nod from Howard Stern on his show. |
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I
wanted forward progression and narrative, and instead this scene
just outright yanked me from whatever entertainment I was arousing
and acted as nothing more than a derailment from the entire film.
Meanwhile, “The Wicked” suffers from a story that is almost too
crowded. While I wanted to see how the battle between the Satanists
and the Knights Templar eventually ended, the sub-plots involving
the government, the mafia, and their entanglement with this
mysterious brotherhood to be quite tedious and often brought the
story to a screeching halt with almost nothing to take away from
these sequences. “The Wicked” is a hit or miss experience that tugs
back and forth between this convoluted sub-plot involving all of
these characters, and the potentially great battle involving these
two age old dynasties of alternate beliefs.
Director Sal
Ciavarello has a great visual style, and strong performances, it’s just
a shame that “The Wicked” gets too caught up in endless sub-plots,
convoluted back stories, and paying lip service to Howard Stern to
really buckle down, focus and tell the story we came to see.
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