In short: Glorious (2022)

Warning: spoilers are somewhat unavoidable with this one!

Following the loss of, or perhaps a break-up with, his girlfriend Brenda (Sylvia Grace Crim), Wes (Ryan Kwanten), is on something of a bender of performative depression (including lots of face rubbing and even a bit of “Noooo!!!!”-screeching like a Bollywood character who has just lost his mother) and related destructive behaviour. After a bit of that and a lot of whiskey, he finds himself stranded in a public restroom out in the middle of nowhere.

A voice (J.K. Simmons) from the next stall over that comes through a large hole in the dividing wall surrounded by a picture of something eldritch is rather interested in what’s going on with Wes.

The voice, it turns out, belongs to a creature from the void calling itself Gatanothoa. Gat, as Wes will come to call it, needs something from Wes, so much so, that it’s perfectly willing to trap him and torture him with waking nightmares. It’s all in service of saving the universe and humanity, so surely, Wes will help poor Gat out, right?

I know director Rebekah McKendry mostly as a veteran podcaster involved in some of the better podcasts about horror (because of which I also can report on her teaching film). As a director, she has slowly worked herself up to this lovely little low budget indie that makes excellent use of only a couple of locations and a tiny cast, treating these things, as most good filmmakers on this budget level do, as a creative anchor for the film instead of a hindrance.

There’s an effective sense of surrealist weirdness to the proceedings, suggested mostly via lighting and appropriately freakish camera angles that pairs nicely with the simplicity of the actual plot, and some moments of fun, macabre imagination. Also of note is how the film actually manages to have a final plot twist that enhances and explains what came before. It will probably even enrich the experience on a second watch, for much what might rub a viewer the wrong way about Wes and his reactions to various revelations makes a lot more sense in hindsight, instead of the twist making a mockery of what came before like too many of these things like to do.

And how could I not love a film in which an eldritch entity speaks with as much delightful politeness as J.K. Simmons puts into his performance here? Kwanten has one of his better outings as well, and most of the bits that didn’t work for me the first time around actually work after the twist, which is the sign of a thoughtful performance.

All of which makes for a fun movie that has a bit more depth than one might at first believe.