Reviews
“What Remains of Edith Finch” is a Joyfully Haunting Experience
I was about a quarter way through “What Remains of Edith Finch” when I realized that I was looking for fear in all the wrong places with it. Much like “Gone Home,” I kept waiting for a ghost to materialize or the famous Finch Family Curse to rear it’s deadly head, but that moment never came. I had to sit on it for a little while, but I slowly realized that deep down “What Remains of Edith Finch” was giving me a sense of loss and painful nostalgia for people I’ve never met and a place I’ve never been more than any game has before.
From the start of the game to its somber-yet-uplifting finish, you’ll play as Edith. She’s made the trip to the home her family inhabited for three generations, the tradition ending with Edith and her mother. The reason for their premature departure isn’t clear early on, but a big contributing factor is the supposed curse I mentioned earlier. Oddly enough, members of the Finch family tend to die in extreme and bizarre ways. Basically, as long as its not old age, it’s fair game. That’s why as the game goes on, the journal Edith fills with the tragic history of her family’s past grows more and more important.
What sets this game apart from other “walking sims” as they’re (sometimes fondly, sometimes not) called, is that it finds a way to insert varied and inspired gameplay throughout it’s three-hour duration that is not only fun to play around with, but is also integral to understanding its story. As Edith makes her way through the Weasley-esque mansion, she relays the various personalities, and of course deaths of her family members. The cool thing about it is you actually get to play through these various memories.
As I played through the game, I kept waiting for one of the different mini-game memories to let me down. While the fun factor varies with each one, I’d be lying if I said I got bored with any of them. My favorite in particular involves a comic book inspired by the classic film, Creepshow along with a creepy classic theme song that I’m positive every player will recognize.
Despite the somber undertones in the game’s narrative, most of the stories will plant a grin on your face. Hell, some of them will even make you laugh. I felt a little conflicted at first about the tonal shifts, but I realized that if I kept dwelling on the fact that I knew these characters were going to die sooner rather than later, I’d miss out on the fun that I should be having during my brief time in their shoes. I think, and hope that I was meant to feel that way because it shows how firm Giant Sparrow’s grasp is on their narrative.
It’s kind of crazy that with such variation in the different playstyles in “What Remains of Edith Finch,” you’ll only need to master the use of the two thumbsticks and the R2 button. it doesn’t matter if you’re an owl hunting for its prey, a shark rolling down a steep cliff, or a scream queen hobbling through her house looking for an intruder, you’ll only use those three input methods.
On a technical level, I braced myself for the worst (frame rate stutters, slow-loading textures, etc), but I’m happy to say that the game ran flawlessly on my PS4 Pro and my custom PC. It looks incredible too. I can’t stress enough how much this game makes you feel like you’re actually visiting a real place. Giant Sparrow’s Ian Dallas was kind enough to tip me off to the fact that the game’s setting, Orcas Island, WA is in fact a real place, but the work they’ve all done to make an impossible house feel possible is astounding. There are some navigation problems that crop up, since the layout of a real house doesn’t really give you much in the way of contextual cues on where to go, but I never found myself stumbling around for more than a couple minutes at a time.
Since the vast majority of the story is delivered by Edith speaking (or thinking, it’s not really clear) to herself, the writing and voice acting are much more important than in most games. Luckily, Dallas and Tom Bissell’s writing skills paired with Valerie Rose Lohman’s vocal performance are a dream come true. Finally, when you throw in a score by Jeff Russo (“Legion,” “Fargo,” “The Night Of”), the game shapes up almost perfectly.
At first “What Remains of Edith Finch” felt a little too ambiguous and I was preparing myself to be let down, but as the credits rolled I felt a hole in my gut bigger than any game has left me with in a while. Family sticks with you no matter what, and we never know when our time is going to be up, and “What Remains of Edith Finch” is more than happy to show you. You just have to let it.
It’s a big world out there, and that alone can make it seem pretty scary for some people. The uncertainty, the unknown, the unfamiliar – while there are those among us who crave exploration, they’re seemingly outnumbered by those who prefer to close their doors, their borders, and their hearts to whomever – and whatever – sits on the other side. The temptation will be strong to label The Outer Threat as a Temu Disclosure Day, but open your heart to it (and accept its budgetary limitations), and you’ll be rewarded with an engaging, hopeful genre tale.
Daniel (Mark O’Brien) is an astrophysicist living on a remote farm with Michelle (Constance Wu) and their two children (Callista Crowe, Isaac Smelcer-Zhang). He retreats every day to an underground bunker where he monitors and searches the universe for signs of extraterrestrial life, and one morning he finds just that – clear evidence of an advanced civilization that’s successfully found a way to harvest the power of their solar system’s sun. He’s understandably ecstatic and in a hurry to tell the world, but Michelle, a retired scientist who’s nearly given up on humanity as a whole and chooses to focus solely on her family, is adamant that he keep quiet.
He goes against her wishes, obviously, and sends an email filled with data attachments to his boss at NORAD. The result is almost immediate as electrical power, internet connections, and cell service all shut off in and around their small nearby town. Soon small drones are buzzing their farm and peeping in their windows, MQ-9 Reapers are bombing their bunker, and unmarked cars are following their every move.
Writer/director William Woods makes his directorial debut with The Outer Threat, and while his ambitions dwarf his resources, the end result is a compelling family adventure that argues for opening our metaphorical doors to the unknown. A strong cast, that also includes a supporting turn from the always welcome William Fichtner, helps carry the downtime between suspense sequences and minor set pieces. It’s an undeniably small film, but its ideas and conversations are exponentially bigger.
Michelle’s beef with humankind stems from both the personal and the general state of the world at large. Her father (Oscar Hsu) is also a scientist, and like Daniel, he risked valuing his work over his family to the point that Michelle no longer speaks with him. Her bigger issue is knowing that our species is a poor steward of both this planet and each other, and when Daniel accuses her of having little faith in humanity, she replies only “not without reason.”
One of The Outer Threat’s most interesting sequences will feel like a disjointed detour to some, but it actually encapsulates one of the film’s central themes in one simple exchange. The family is on the road and heading to Michelle’s father’s place – she’s not thrilled, but his past work with the government might come in handy – when they decide to stop for food. They reach a tiny town that looks deceptively abandoned and are welcomed into a diner by the owner, Sam (Fichtner), and his young granddaughter.
He’s initially cautious and explains that soldiers had passed through, telling everyone to remain indoors, but he proceeds to feed the family in need while explaining that he’s hoping to scrounge up some fuel to reconnect with the rest of his family. Sam also shares with Michelle that he hesitated to open his door to them simply because they were different. He was fearful, and now he’s ashamed and worried that maybe he’s not the man he thought he was. “What really scares me,” he adds, “was the thought that maybe, just maybe, we’re all rotten.”
She listens. She leaves. And she never tells him about the numerous extra canisters of gas they have in the back of their pickup truck.
It’s a striking character beat as our protagonist, even halfway through the film, remains steadfast in her disconnect from others. She’s far from the only one in need of change, though, as it was Daniel’s hubris and ego that led to this situation in the first place. “Our kids should be home safe,” she tells him at one point, “but you just had to let the world know how smart you are.” Woods and his cast mine drama from this brilliant but misaligned couple, and both Wu and O’Brien are convincing in their motivations and emotions.
Somewhat less convincing are the film’s occasional swings at big visual effects. Drones and weather balloons in the sky are passable, but explosions, vast encampments, and more land with an iffy digital thud. None of them are deal breakers, though, both because they’re used sparingly and because the characters and their dilemma take center stage.
Woods, whose best and brightest accomplishment remains serving as a producer on the criminally underseen 2020 film, The Kid Detective, arguably bites off a bit more than he can chew with The Outer Threat. His big ideas on both story and humankind are inevitably under-explored in a film of this size, and you’ll be left wishing he had a bigger budget behind him. Audiences are bound to expect something more from the film’s third act, especially, so set your expectations accordingly going in that this is more a film about human connection and ideals than it is a tale of alien invasion.
There are moments here of genuine suspense and thrills, but the film’s power rests in those human beats. From Sam revealing he was concealing a gun while making them pancakes, to Michelle’s father pushing aside huge news of world-altering significance so he can instead spend time with grandchildren he’s only just met, to feuding kids combining their skills for an act of bravery, this is a movie about people who can be so much more than we believe ourselves capable of being.
“For thousands of years human beings have been the dominant species on this planet,” says a character at a certain point, “but that’s no longer the case.” The trailer teases this line, and while you can’t fault the marketing department, it might feel like a bit of a bait and switch by the time the end credits roll. You can choose to be underwhelmed, but here’s hoping you open the door to the film’s hopefulness instead.
The Outer Threat is now available on VOD and Digital.
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