CLINGER (2015)

Clinger (2015)
Directed by: Michael Steves
Written by: Bubba Fish, Gabi Chennisi Duncombe
Starring: Alicia Monet Caldwell, Jennifer Laporte, Vincent Martella

Available now on Amazon

With an opening text about ‘first love’ accompanied by a sinister musical cue Clinger sets the tone for a typical boy meets girl high school drama, albeit one in which something might be amiss. Initially the opening ten minutes or so keeps up with the first part of that premise as Fern (Jennifer Laporte) a promising science and athletics enthusiast hooks up with with Robert, (Vincent Martella) an awkward guitarist. The cutesy drama is coupled with a standard first date montage and some cheesy music, and things take their expected course; for just a while at least. However as the title suggests this is all about to get very weird very fast, and out of nowhere Robert’s interest in writing bad song lyrics and buying gifts starts to become more than an annoyance, changing into something a little obsessive.

But this isn’t the only change in gears that the story will take before things really get going. When Fern finally gets the courage to dump him there’s a rather nasty accident. She might be singe again but unfortunately for her this is just the beginning of the problem. Clinger is actually a ghost story rather than simply a romantic melodrama, and this bait and switch comes early on to set the scene. Silly characters and splatter effects are a sign of things to come once Fern’s relationship comes to a sticky end in this horror comedy. From here the humour levels are ramped up, for better or worse, and the cast expands. The story pushes on towards each respected genre as the supernatural elements and the jokes start to increase. Fern’s friends and family are a goofy bunch from her sister trying to become an entrepreneur by making sock puppets, to her religious friend who keeps making clueless innuendos during normal conversation for some reason.

During the funeral scenes after Robert’s premature demise and the subsequent family dinner table scenes there are all kinds of strange and awkward moments and comic dialogue which lend it all a particularly silly tone. It’s the kind of thing that could be very dry and tedious if there was any sense of seriousness involved. But fortunately realism and any sort of serious pretence is not on the cards here. The cast are pretty good for what is required of a young ensemble with the teen romance and high school clique scenes feeling natural, if a little one dimensional. But this isn’t the place for deep character development unless you count sock puppet grief counselling. There are plenty of other typical archetypes in the supporting cast as Fern tries to get help from airhead lab partners and meat headed jocks along the way.

The light tone means this all looks and feels like a television show a lot of the time which is unfortunate since a certain amount of creativity has gone into this. But the bland daytime lighting and use of scribbled flash animation makes it seem like a kids drama; albeit one with some creative splatter effects and plenty of cursing. Other visual elements such as jump cuts showing ghostly apparitions are more annoying but thankfully these are brief. The mixture of violence and oddball characters never quite meshes together, but it’s never dull at least. By the time the second act comes around Robert and Fern are starting to get back together… whether she likes it or not. Which is where things star to get more interesting.

But despite the potential for creepy relationship problems in this premise the movie isn’t here to tell a dark story at all. Instead it’s one which includes a Beetlejuice style ‘So, You’re Dead’ pamphlet being handed out to the new arrivals at the local cemetery. Even when the idea of ghostly revenge comes around it’s not exactly serious. It remains consistently silly throughout the running time. There are flying scissors and evil stuffed toys when things start to get out of control. A whole set piece is dedicated to a scary puppet attack without any realistic effects, which offers a mixture of stupid and gory spectacle I can really get behind. For a story featuring so many ethereal entities there are a lot of strangely physical attacks involved from both sides, which adds to the fun.

There are no surprises in store when it comes to the plot, although the tangent involving a local ghost hunter and the rules of exorcising unwanted spirits are just unexpected enough to keep it interesting. Soon enough Robert figures out that hanging around the living won’t be a lasting option and he starts to consider the kind of drastic alternatives you’d expect. The more left field elements included stop the repetitive class room tropes becoming too irritating, especially when tooling up montage scenes arrive. Anti-ghost weapons and pills that make the dead visible to the main protagonists? Sure why not ramp things up to ludicrous extremes. The big finale in which Fern’s race track qualifier is interrupted by Robert’s new graveyard pals is particularly silly, but it sums the whole thing up as the dialogue gets dumber and the effects get bigger.

The levels of absurdity reach their peak once everyone bands together to come to help solve the problem, and it makes for a likeable if ultimately nonsensical climax. This isn’t anything you haven’t seen before of course. In terms of either romantic tales which mix in a few ghoulish elements or straight up horror this has been done elsewhere. And we’ve all seen plenty of films that utilise this kind of standard low budget blood and guts. But it’s got enough weird charm and amusement value to keep things together… more or less. It’s ramshackle at the best of times and can perhaps get too cute every so often, but it’s generally good hearted fun and most importantly it never outstays its welcome.

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