‘Men are pigs…’
For any fellow horror nerds that aren’t already aware, Amazon offers a subscription-only service called Shudder which caters exclusively to horror fans. It’s great. Aside from its excellent horror documentaries and original movies, it also has a huge back catalogue of lesser-known films to choose from. These may vary in quality, but they are invariably interesting in some way or another. Sweet, Sweet Lonely Girl, as hinted at by the title, is an odd, uncompromising film that is, nevertheless, still intriguing…
When Adele (Erin Wilhelmi) moves in with her aunt Dora (Susan Kellermann), she expects quiet nights sat in front of the fire, and maybe a rekindling of a childhood relationship with her now estranged aunt. Through the help of local hottie Beth (Quinn Shephard), Adele ends up unlocking her burgeoning sexuality and rebellious streak.
The invalided relative in the upstairs bedroom is not a new concept (it was used to devastating effect in the original Pet Sematary), and all the usual tropes that come with that familiar genre convention are present and correct. Creaking floorboards. Bizarre children’s toys. That darn rocking chair rocking away to itself. While we have seen all this before, writer-director A.D. Calvo does a good job of creating tension aided by some sterling sound design and an increasingly chilling score. The problem is that neither Adele nor Beth are particularly interesting characters, and when shit starts to go south in the third act, we simply haven’t spent enough time with either of them to be properly invested (the skinny running time of only 76 minutes doesn’t help in this regard), and the final twist is baffling rather than shocking.
For those that love the haunted house genre, Sweet, Sweet Lonely Girl is proficient enough at creating a disturbing atmosphere to make the whole venture worthwhile. Everyone else should probably steer clear.