Brief Story Line
Mara Carlyle (Katherine Langford - Cursed, 13 Reasons Why TV series etc) was just a normal senior high school student at Covington High with her best friend Tess (Hayley Law - Altered Carbon TV series etc). But their lives changed when one of their classmates spontaneously combust in classroom. After that incident, Mara grew close with fellow classmate Dylan (Charlie Plummer - All the Money in the World, Words on Bathroom Floors etc) who had been having a crush on her for a while.
Before their lives were back to normal, another student exploded, making the government decided to look into this matter seriously through FBI, led by Agent Rosetti (Yvonne Orji - Insecure TV series etc). Students' parents including Mara's mother Angela (Piper Perabo - Angel Has Fallen, Cheaper by the Dozen etc) and father Charlie (Rob Huebel - Childrens Hospital TV series etc) were panicked and worried about the situation of their children.
So how would the story conclude? What would happen to Mara and Dylan with their new found love? Find them all in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Phew that was surprisingly really dark. At first I thought this movie would be focusing on the science fiction of "spontaneous human combustion" which I only knew from watching Western movies/TV series in the past. (I don't think I have heard it happened in Asia). Anyway after having the early shocking part of the incident, I was feeling pretty intense and excited. But after a while, the story went to a different direction than what I expected and became more like a standard teenage drama.
Up to certain point though, the movie became more and more serious and darker, especially with that one particular scene in the middle which was the highlight moment to me. I was really surprised by the turn of event, although the feeling has been constantly there from the beginning. It's just I never thought it would happen. But that was what made this movie quite heavy and interesting to my opinion.
This film was highly praised by critics and I think it was due to the way the unconventional story developed. Even though it was not like what I expected (where the mistake was actually on my part for not reading the synopsis carefully, as it already hinted focusing on romance), I still enjoyed the film. There was a bit of dark humor and they also sometimes used the breaking fourth wall technique which was pretty fun. The film was directed and written by Brian Duffel whose writing credits including films like Jane Got a Gun, The Babysitter, Love and Monsters and few others. So I guess he was quite experienced in writing good quality movies.
The movie was rated R, which I believed was due to some of the gore scenes and it is definitely not suitable for children, plus there were a lot of F word used. It has a 101 minutes duration including closing credit which did not have any mid or post end credit scene. There were some nice music here as well which could be heard in the background or during certain scenes.
Overall, I felt this movie had an interesting premise and since I do not really mind dark theme, I could still enjoy it. But if the early part where the teen drama felt very strong could be reduced a bit, perhaps I would like it even better. So if you are interested in this sort of unique very dark romance with a bit of sci-fi element of spontaneous human combustion phenomenon, then you would love this movie. Do not watch it if you prefer soft teen drama romance, and especially if you cannot stand the sight of lots of blood.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Note from Wikipedia:
Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) is the pseudoscientific concept of the combustion of a living (or recently deceased) human body without an apparent external source of ignition. In addition to reported cases, descriptions of the alleged phenomenon appear in literature, and both types have been observed to share common characteristics in terms of circumstances and the remains of the victim.
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