Director: Zack Parker
MPAA Rating: NR
Film Pulse Score: 7.5/10
Zack Parker’s daring new film Proxy is not so much a horror film, but an excellently crafted mashup of genres that will constantly keep you guessing as to how the next crazy twist will play out. It’s deliberately paced, but knows exactly when to throw in a gut punch to keep the audience on their toes. Like Parker’s previous film, Scalene, Proxy is a movie that is unique both in structure and tone, and if it has to be pigeonholed into the horror genre it’s easily one of the best of the year.
The film begins with a woman (Alexia Rasmussen) being brutally attacked and losing her unborn child after leaving her doctor’s office. While coping with the loss of her child, she develops a friendship with a woman named Melanie (Alexa Havins) at a support group. As her infatuation with Melanie grows, things start to become a little strange before completely spiraling into chaos.
There’s so much more happening in this film than what I mentioned above, but giving anything else away would be delving a little too deeply into spoiler territory. To think that this is simply a film about a woman obsessed with another is doing the film a disservice, as that is only one layer of this onion.
Near the halfway mark there’s a radical shift in the film’s narrative that transforms it into something completely unexpected and infinitely more intriguing. The plot goes places that you never see coming and you never know which path it will be heading towards.
Jim Timperman, who previously worked with Parker on Scalene, does a fantastic job with the film’s cinematography. The visual representation of the mounting dread and tension works perfectly, and there’s an amazing use of slow motion that proves to be as beautiful as it is horrifically violent.
That being said, it should be noted that this isn’t some sort of wall-to-wall bloodbath with dead babies everywhere as the poster may suggest. While the violence is brutal and extremely disturbing, it’s done in a sparing and precise manner. It’s not a scary movie, but it’s the kind that gets under your skin and makes you ask yourself what you would do in these very heavy situations.
Zack Parker is the type of director that we need more of in Hollywood. He’s marching to the beat of his own drum and making movies that throw convention out the window. Proxy is a must-see for any horror fan, but can easily find an audience beyond those borders.
