With a divorce and house sale pending, a police detective is put on the case of several ritualistic murders being committed her in town. As she investigates and finds clues, she loses more and more of her mind.
Written and directed by Andy Collier and Toor Mian, Charismata is part psychological thriller, part horror, part police procedural and manages to mix the three quite successfully. The story takes its time to get really going and to get the characters to a likable place but it eventually does and at that point, it becomes a fun watch, but before that, every character feels like it was designed to annoy and aggravate. The characters are all somewhat mad or negative about one thing or another, everyone seems to be getting on everyone else’s nerves. This leads to them being mostly unlikable until a bit further into the story once things have started really going. This does lead to the viewer not caring about just about anyone involved for a while, but eventually getting into the film properly. This thankfully leads to a nicely dark place with some interesting developments.
The cast here seems to be going from annoyed and annoying to decent characters as the film goes along. The character of Rebecca Faraway gets the most screen time and seems to be one who evolves the most in terms of going from a pure ball of negativity to an interesting version of a human during the film. Actress Sarah Beck Mather does good work here, assuming she’s is not an insufferable frustrated women and this is all an act, and she gets the most interesting part of the bunch, which she makes the most of. Her acting is what keeps the viewer interested here while the film develops its story and mystery. Her character gets to have some fun, some fright, and some trauma, which she handles with care and knowledge as to how to pass her emotions to the viewers.
The film has an interesting look here, created with images by cinematographer Fernando Ruiz and editing by Christopher C.F. Chow. Together with the design departments and careful shots planning, they create interesting visuals which pepper the film here and there. Some of these are worth checking out and sticking around through the start that may make viewers want to turn it off. Thankfully, these images look to be more and more present as the film advances and the annoyances are less and less.
Charismata has some good ideas and characters that do evolve from not likable to likable and this helps bring the viewer in and make them want to see where this is all going. As the film advances the mystery deepens and keeps things interesting until a fairly powerful ending which makes the entirety of the film feel like a worthwhile watch.
Charismata is playing at the Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival on Saturday, September 30th. Tickets can be purchased at https://filmfreeway.com/festival/PhiladelphiaUnnamedFilmFestival/tickets