Set almost entirely with the walls of a rest stop bathroom, Glorious charts the waking nightmare of Wes (Ryan Kwanten) who is way down on his luck. He has just broken up with his partner and found himself homeless. Now doomed to live in his car for the foreseeable future, Wes arrives at a remote rest stop for the night. Seeking to dull his pain, Wes escapes into a bottle, waking the next day to find the charred remains of his life and himself with the hangover from Hell. The aftermath of so much alcohol consumption sees him race to the bathroom, a place which unbeknown to him he may now never escape.
Hiding in the stall next to Wes is the disembodied voice of a stranger (voiced by J.K. Simmons). This voice is friendly at first, inquiring after Wes’ post-vomit health, but soon reveals more sinister undertones. The bulk of the film unfolds with Wes interacting with just a voice, placing a lot of pressure upon Kwanten’s shoulders. As Wes he is the sole focus for the duration of the film and he manages to be continually engaging. Kwanten leans into his comedy muscles, those that he strengthened in True Blood and Home and Away. Rebekah McKendry also pushes the humour; there are some over-the-top extreme zoom-outs (which makes thematic sense in the end), exaggerated vomiting, and some excellently silly lines of dialogue.
Glorious will no doubt draw comparisons to Saw, purely based upon the primary location, but they are drastically different films. Whilst the setting is the same, Glorious aligns closer to a cosmic horror, sharing more elements with the likes of Colour out of Space than the James Wan classic. It’s an interesting location for this type of story to play out in and director Rebekah McKendry does a great job at transforming the bathroom. What begins as your typical public restroom, changes into something beautiful as it becomes swaddled in hazy blue, red, pink and purple hues. The performance of Ryan Kwanten evokes another cosmic horror (and another Nic Cage film) – Mandy. Kwanten’s performance doesn’t quite match up to the Cage insanity, but there are several familiar beats, including a very shouty bathroom breakdown.
A film clearly made during the pandemic era, the limited cast and location wears thin in a couple of places; however, the cosmic horror elements keep the viewer hooked. Held together by a solid performance from Ryan Kwanten, and accompanied by some excellent vocal work by J.K. Simmons, Glorious has plenty to offer genre fans. A comedic trauma seeped in flourishes of celestial colour, Glorious is one bad bathroom visit that you should make time for.
Glorious
Summary
Cosmic horror in a bathroom stall may not sound that tempting, and yet Rebekah McKendry’s film manages to be funny, frightening, and philosophical all at once.
Glorious was reviewed at Fantasia International Film Festival. Glorious will arrive on Shudder on Thursday 18th August 2022.
