Movies
Wrecked (V)
“As a result, Wrecked loses its shine the longer you watch it. There are only so many scenes of Brody elbow-crawling through pine needles that a man can take before the magic starts to wear off.”
The success of one-man shows like Buried or Moon depend almost entirely on the acting prowess of the leading man. Although both films were expertly shot and edited, it’s the presence of Ryan Reynolds and Sam Rockwell (respectively) that pushed them into the annals of cult greatness. In Wrecked, star Adrien Brody plays a man who wakes up in a mangled car, in the middle of the woods, with his leg trapped under the crushed dashboard. In a raw, bruised performance, he certainly proves he’s got the chops to shoulder a one-man, limited-scope indie flick.
When he first regains consciousness––his face banged all to shit, his eyelid swollen to the size of a super-ripe grape––Brody wears his confusion like a plaintive mask. He’s in the passenger seat of a totaled sedan, there’s a male corpse in the back seat, and it’s completely obvious that Brody has no idea where he is or how he got there. His amnesia is conveyed with a minimum of dialogue (Brody only says a handful of words during the first 30 minutes of Wrecked), which is a credit to both Brody’s performance and the gaunt script by screenwriter Christopher Dodd. Brody eventually manages to free his broke-ass leg from the wreckage, but after discovering a half-spent revolver under the car seat and hearing a local news report on the car radio, he’s not so sure he wants to be rescued.
Eating bugs and drinking captured rain water, Brody’s crippled forest survival becomes the focus of Wrecked, essentially ignoring the audience’s desire to find out how and why he got into that stupid car in the first place. And that’s the primary problem with the film: the story is too skeletal to carry any real weight. It’s obvious that Brody was involved in some bad shit, but the film is far too deliberate in doling out its secrets. A plot that can be summarized in one sentence takes the movie a full 90 minutes to reveal. As a result, Wrecked loses its shine the longer you watch it. There are only so many scenes of Brody elbow-crawling through pine needles that a man can take before the magic starts to wear off.
Hollywood is serious about landing the next Backrooms. Hot on the heels of a Siren Head feature announcement, Deadline reports that a new movie based on viral YouTube series The Mandela Catalogue is in development.
It also has some Hollywood heavy hitters behind it.
Amblin Entertainment’s Steven Spielberg, United Artists’ Scott Stuber (Frankenstein), and Amazon MGM Studios are set to produce, emerging victorious after a highly competitive 11-studio bidding war.
Launched in 2021, the YouTube series is set in the fictional Mandela County, Wisconsin which is “invaded by shape-shifting, nearly immortal creatures called Alternates. The Alternates are led by a false depiction of the Archangel Gabriel and their aim is to wipe out the human race by psychologically torturing them to the point of suicide. The Alternates are known for manipulating AV media, TVs, computers and GPS systems.”
The movie will be directed by the series’ creator, Alex Kister, based on a screenplay he adapted with Tyler Clifton.
The Mandela Catalogue has racked up an impressive 100 million views across its official episodes alone, solidifying it as one of the largest original analog horror franchises on YouTube.
Spielberg and Holly Bario are producing for Amblin Entertainment alongside Aaron B. Koontz for Paper Street Pictures and Stuber and Nick Nesbitt for United Artists. Kister and Clifton are also producing. Annie McCreery will oversee the project for United Artists. Maria Fortese will oversee for Amblin.
Get acquainted with The Mangela Catalogue below while we wait to learn more.