Look Away (2018) - The Real Horror is the Patiarchy

Look Away (2019) feels like a Disney Channel Horror Movie. The premise at least, is interesting, and it’s protagonist is somewhat more likeable than in Wish Upon, but it loses its way and tries to get artsy.

The premise: a bullied girl turns to her reflection to fix her life, but things take a turn for the worse.

Here’s the thing – everyone in Maria (India Eisley)’s life is a horrible to the point of caricature. You feel immediate sympathy for her because of her strangely cruel parents – a mum (Mira Sorvino) who’s absent and uncaring and a plastic surgeon father (Jason Isaacs) who criticises every part of her appearance. Not to mention the fact the school hates her for no apparent reason, (she’s quiet, I guess?) and her best friend keeps her around as a kindness. Everyone is cartoonishly cruel with no real development.

So, Maria’s life sucks, but she finds that her reflection has come to life. It will fix all of her problems for her – it will make her confident and cool. Only now, instead of acting shy and sad, Maria acts like a brat. Sympathy is not empathy – so we don’t follow her actions before her mirror reflection turns to killing people. Again, this is because it doesn’t follow through on our expectations. We expect her to become happy with her life once she has confidence from her reflection, but the film skips over that part. Maria goes straight from underdog to unlikeable and the missing step is a crucial one of the narrative.

And then the movie tries to get fancy. It’s the kind of ending that you kind of get, but still google because it just doesn’t translate right. A classic kind of ‘and they were crazy all along’ twist that doesn’t feel satisfying. Because it’s not earnt. A few flashback clips to show an outside view of the situation would elevate the ending into some kind of commentary. What kind of commentary, I’m not sure – the inherent evil of miscarriages? Of the phenomenon of one twin absorbing the other? Of course, it might not be trying to say anything – but when you’ve tried for an artsy twist and a symbolic ending image – surely there’s a message and not just a cool idea.

Because if this was just a cool idea, it would get more slack. It would be another teen horror movie. Good for a first dip into the world of horror that definitely holds the feel of Disney Channel original movies with a lot more blood and guts.

The saving grace of this movie is Maria’s father. As said before, this man is awful. His gift of perfecting his daughters appearance is by far the most disturbing part of the movie. It’s a blunt comment on beauty and ideals – but it’s there nonetheless. And the uncomfortable feel of these scenes make an impact, at least. There’s an undercurrent of squickiness that is down to the actors. Eisley does a brilliant job of portraying not only Maria, but her alter ego Ariam too in a genuine way. (Though there is always something ironic about a pretty actress being framed as conventionally unattractive.) If this was focused on more – alongside the twin narrative – then the film would have a lot more to say for itself.

As it stands, this is a forgettable, slightly bizarre teen horror. The horror of beauty standards for women remains scarier than a killer reflection.