Directed
by Christophe Lenoir, known for Cellule
66
(2008) and Focus:
A Gate is Now Opened
(2018), Hexing
is a story of redemption through trials presented by an evil force
caught in an antique trinket and is set in a small town in Ireland.
That is the short version and considerably more simple than the
construct of the film.
Hexing
tries to say too many things with too little command and the entire
film is a mess of stories and characters trying to fill a puzzle that
got its pieces from several random boxes. It is clumsy, at best.
However, for those who have the zeal to watch it more than once, it
might make sense from a writing perspective. Hexing
was written by two writers, but I wonder if they knew of one another.
The
film starts with a young woman going to see an antique dealer, aptly
called Madame Estelle, in Paris in hopes of becoming the antique
dealer’s assistant. While waiting, she finds a mysterious board (of
course) and Madame Estelle invites her to listen to a story of how
the board came to her shop. Sounds intriguing, but then the writers
start weaving a Gordian Knot of characters and circumstances that
fall about the timeline like spilled rice.
Madame
Estelle tells of Hannah (Emma Eliza Regan), a sad young woman who
lives with her father in Ireland. The two do not get along, because
of a past transgression of Hannah’s father. She works at a coffee
shop with her friends Alice (Dominique Swain) and Joe (Adam Weafer),
with a womanizing malefactor as their boss. There is also a crooked
cop with a rapist attitude that hovers, but as with the rest of the
establishing scenes, no reason is introduced for anything.
The
influx of characters pile on in unbearably long scenes that amount to
nothing – Alice gets slammed in the kitchen of the coffee shop by a
supposedly hot boyfriend, while Joe pines for her. Hannah is already
insignificant for a lead role and the slow pace of the film makes you
scream for explanations. It appears that Hexing confuses omission for
mystery throughout.
Once
the friends finally and unknowingly discover and claim an occult
device from the local antique shop, the formula dribble ensues.
Calling the spirit board ‘yantra’ does not change the obligatory
Ouija scene that – you guessed it – releases an ominous force. As
you might surmise, Hexing
trudges through the mandatory death-by-possession scenes while the
bland Hannah teeters between teenage bitch and weak waif mannerisms.
Although
the acting is drab and unconvincing (apart from the despicable police
officer, well played by Conor Marren), the actual idea is very
interesting and I blame bad writing for the terrible loss of what
could have been a solid and relatively fresh story.
Basing
a story on an Indian occult premise, the Sri Yantra, the backstory is
left dreadfully unexplored and it would have redeemed the whole film
if it had not been reduced to a short flashback. The idea of a man
who died doing a friend a favor and thus pursued friendship beyond
death by channeling his evil powers to ‘help’, is a lovely basis
for a good, eerie movie.
Unfortunately,
the director did not pay attention to the story’s only original
part. Not surprising, as he did not bother to correct the
unbelievable background reaction acting during some of the more
intense scenes that would have made Hexing
far more terrifying – or terrifying at all.
Good
idea – bad execution. Because of the scattered facts and careless
ties in scenes that leave Hexing
an awkward mess, the writing unfortunately sinks this ship. At least
the cinematography is beautiful and the camera work is on par to
usher viewers into the settings, but as a whole, Hexing
is a pallid painting of what could have been extraordinary.
-Tasha Danzig
