Written and directed by Jeremiah Kipp, Slapface is a feature adaptation of his 2017 short film, and I would argue that, like some others, it perhaps worked better as a short than it does as a feature. Not that I have seen the short film yet, but I aim to.
The film is all about young Lucas (August Maturo), who lives with his brother, Tom (Mike Manning, also a producer on the film). The two have been scrambling to figure out their way through life after the sudden death of their mother, and part of their coping mechanism is to use a "game" named Slapface to question and test one another. Lucas doesn't really have any friends, but that changes when he encounters a legendary local monster (played by Lukas Hassel).
On the one hand, and most importantly, Slapface shows the life of a child that will be horribly familiar to anyone who has grown up relatively unsupervised in their home. You have that element of fun and freedom, but it comes with the major price of also not having that support, you don't have anyone to help you course correct or learn some more social defence mechanisms, which makes it easier to end up on the end of different forms of bullying. This is a film that hones in on that point better than many others, and that's partly thanks to the lead performance from Maturo.
Unfortunately, the horror element mixed in doesn't quite work, not for me anyway. The monster always feels too . . . monstrous, making it impossible to consider young Lucas making a connection with the creature. It's clear what Kipp is aiming for here, it just doesn't ever work as well as he thinks it well. Having said that, I seem to be very much in the minority with that view.
Maturo gives a great performance, introverted and withdrawn in a way that clearly shows how his childhood has been impacted by a traumatic loss. Manning is also very good, a big brother who tries, but isn't really ready, to be the parental figure. Libe Barer and Mirabelle Lee both put in good turns, playing two young women who view Lucas very differently, and their view of Lucas, and his relationship with his brother, is an important reminder of the different ideas that people can have when they are observing from an outsider's perspective. Dan Hedaya also has a small role, playing a local Sheriff, and is as good as ever.
I really wanted to like this more than I did. There's a very good idea at the heart of it, and it sometimes comes very close to being great. It ultimately never worked as well as it should, sadly, but I'd really like to see Kipp explore this territory again, committing himself to a journey that keeps him away from the middle ground. This either needed additional horror content or no extra horror at all, with the damaged child at the centre of it all arguably going through enough horror in his daily life.
Good intentions, nicely put together, and with some great performances, this falls just short of being one to recommend to people. But I do recommend keeping an eye out for whatever comes next from Kipp.
6/10
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