Netflix Is Losing Its Best Psychological Thriller With 91% on RT in January
A masterfully crafted low-budget thriller about the sweetness of cold and carefully planned revenge.
To advance from apprentice to master, a medieval European craftsman would hold a guild banquet and display a masterpiece, a visual demonstration that he had mastered all the intricacies of his craft.
Watching Australian actor, producer and screenwriter Joel Edgerton's directorial debut, The Gift, one is immediately reminded of this ancient tradition, for The Gift is a pure modern masterpiece.
It's a low-budget movie that doesn't break out of its genre boundaries, but it proves that Edgerton can create a compelling project with a minimum of ingredients and almost no help from CGI creators.
What Is The Gift About?
Salesman Simon and his wife Robyn move from Chicago to California to start a new life in a new place. As a teenager, Simon attended a school in California, and soon after the move, he ran into his former classmate Gordo.
They weren't friends in school, and Simon isn't eager to communicate with Gordo, but Gordo imposes himself on them and starts giving them nice and expensive gifts. However, the longer their relationship lasts, the more the couple realizes that they need to stay away from Gordo.
The Gift Is a Brilliant Psychological Thriller with a Touch of Horror
What genre is The Gift? The trailer suggests that this is a slasher film that will end in a bloody massacre, but in fact Edgerton conceived and shot a much more subtle canvas in the genre of psychological thriller.
Yes, it is not without violence – as well as creepy scenes in horror style, which turn the spacious and bright house of the main characters into a gloomy thicket, where danger lurks around every corner.
But this is mostly a dramatic dialogue movie, and physical violence is not an end in itself, but one of the ways to inflict deep and painful psychological wounds. In essence, The Gift is closer to Korean Oldboy than to Halloween or Cape Fear.
The Gift Is Masterfully Crafted in Terms of Sound and Visuals
In a psychological thriller that doesn't rely on car chases and shoot-outs, nothing is more important than a well-crafted atmosphere that evokes the feelings prescribed by the script.
Both the visuals and the sound of The Gift perfectly place all the emotional accents – even in scenes where almost nothing happens. This is praise not only for the cinematographers, decorators and composers, but also for the main author of the movie.
After all, the skill of a director lies not only in the ability to do his job, but also in the ability to find the best collaborators and to give them competent tasks. And The Gift leaves no doubt that Edgerton has mastered this facet of the director's craft.
The Gift Is Leaving Netflix
Hurry up to watch one of the best thrillers on Netflix – The Gift will leave the platform on January 21.