Sun Choke (2015)

Janie's just trying to get well.

Director:

Ben Cresciman

Writers:

Ben Cresciman, Ben Cresciman

Stars:

Sarah Hagan, Sara Malakul Lane, Barbara Crampton

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview:
Sarah Hagan	...	Janie
Sara Malakul Lane	...	Savannah
Barbara Crampton	...	Irma / Janie's nanny / caretake
William Nicol	...	Boyfriend
Evan Jones	...	Attacker
Joe Nieves	...	Officer Olson
Jim Boeven	...	Janie's Dad
Christina Amber	...	Janie / Young
Diana Nguyen	...	Paramedic
Derek Bevil	...	Paramedic
Annie Read	...	Savannah's Friend

Storyline

As she recovers from a recent violent psychotic break, Janie is subjected each day to a bizarre holistic health and wellness regimen designed, and enforced, by her lifelong nanny and caretaker, Irma. When her mother died, Irma promised her father to care for Janie during her life. Janie begins to veer off the road to recovery when she develops an obsession with a young woman, Savannah, that she feels an inexplicable yet profound connection to. The obsession turns increasingly invasive, and wedges all three women into an ever-tightening, and terrifying struggle for control. Will she pull herself back from the precipice of insanity? Or will she go over head-first, taking anyone nearby down with her?

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Plot Keywords:

shaved labia | murderess | sex scene | sexy | insanity | 

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-MA

User Reviews

A movie with nothing to say

I knew virtually nothing about Sun Choke before I decided to check it out on Netflix. This movie had an extremely limited release date and flew under many critic's radars. My expectations were fairly high going into it, thinking that I may have discovered another subtle and underrated gem. Boy was I wrong. Sun Choke is a movie that has nothing important to say and feels cheap, gimmicky and recycled.

Firstly, the good things. Admittedly, there aren't many positives with Sun Choke but I guess the acting was passable. Sarah Hagan in the lead role does a decent job even if she sometimes overacts. I can see her having bigger roles in the future, but for the rest of the cast, that's a different story. One of the supporting actresses in the film was particularly awful. Sure enough, this spectacularly attractive actress, is also a model. Just as I suspected. And conveniently, she has multiple nude scenes. So clearly the director decided to go for the looks instead of the talent which led to a laughably bad performance from her.

Now the story. The story is basically a blatant rip-off of Yorgos Lanthimos' Dog Tooth, which just happens to be a much better film. Sun Choke attempts the "isolated training sessions" plot that so many films have done(better)before, which gives the film a recycled, cheap feeling. And if you are familiar with the genre, it is also totally predictable. There was nothing surprising about where the story went and frankly I stopped caring after 45 minutes. There is not one bit of originality in this campy, pretentious mess.

None of the protagonist's psychotic actions can really be explained as all of the characters are completely underdeveloped, especially the main character. Her transition that we are supposed to find shocking, comes off as laughable and just forced. We know nothing about this character or why she is doing these things. The most explanation we get for the character's actions is "she's insane" and that felt offensively lazy.

The camera work was okay and the lighting was decent but it doesn't even begin to bring the quality of this film anywhere close to above average.

Sun Choke does absolutely nothing new. Basically it's entire story is borrowed and has nothing remotely interesting going on. Quite frankly it wouldn't be too harsh saying that this movie has no reason to exist. It's unoriginal, recycled and completely gimmicky. The pretentious take on the concept feels cheap and the blatantly obvious ending metaphor is as subtle as hammer-blow to the head.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 August 2016 (USA)

Also Known As:

Sun Choke

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lodger Films, Easy Open Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.40:1