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‘Forgiveness’ review: Dir. Alex Kahuam [FrightFest]

Forgiveness was reviewed at Arrow Video FrightFest 2021. 

Every year at Arrow Video FrightFest there are one or two films that really divide the audience. This year one of those films is Forgiveness. Written and directed by Alex Kahuam, the film has an interesting premise and method of story-telling, but the content will not be to everyone’s taste. Taking place across three chapters and an epilogue, each chapter joins one of three women, Magnea (Jessica Ortiz), Aisha (Alejandra Zaid), and Camila (Alejandra Toussaint).The three women wake up in a strange hospital type facility, each missing a key ability. Magnea is now mute, Aisha is unable to hear, and Camila is blind. The camera then follows each of the women as they make their way through the hospital halls encountering all manner of depraved activities. 

The biggest flaw with Forgiveness is that there doesn’t feel as if there is any structure to the story as the trio of women amble around with no real sense of purpose. The plot is stretched thin and Kahuam seems content to fill the screen with scenes that wouldn’t feel out of place in an adaptation of Clive Barker’s Coldheart Canyon. Were that to be the case then there wouldn’t really be any issues, there would be a story leading up to these moments, but here events just unfold, getting progressively more intense and weird. 

Another issue for some will be the fact that there isn’t any dialogue until the epilogue in the final moments. The rest of the film plays out as a silent movie, which given the fluidity and unstructured formation of events, just ends up further bewildering the viewer. It also doesn’t make much sense from a narrative perspective as the lack of dialogue works to diminish the impact of Magnea’s muteness. Even if the other two characters simply uttered a line or two each, that would be enough to hammer home the fact that one has no way to communicate whatsoever. The score may be the only aspect of the film that actually works, particularly in Magnea’s segment when it acts as a replacement vessel for her voice. 

For some of the FrightFest family, Forgiveness will scratch just the itch they’ve been missing, for many though I feel, it’s going to be a little too unformed and chaotic to connect with. 

Forgiveness

Kat Hughes

Forgiveness

Summary

There’s an idea for an interesting short hidden somewhere amongst the madness, but stretched to feature length, Forgiveness just becomes maddening.

2

Forgiveness was reviewed at Arrow Video FrightFest 2021. 

Kat Hughes is a UK born film critic and interviewer who has a passion for horror films. An editor for THN, Kat is also a Rotten Tomatoes Approved Critic. She has bylines with Ghouls Magazine, Arrow Video, Film Stories, Certified Forgotten and FILMHOUNDS and has had essays published in home entertainment releases by Vinegar Syndrome and Second Sight. When not writing about horror, Kat hosts micro podcast Movies with Mummy along with her five-year-old daughter.

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