Movies: Kryptic (2024) by Kourtney Roy: The Psychedelic Identity Swap and the Collapse of Reality
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Movie Summary: The Monster Hunter's Entangled Destiny
Title:Â A Woman's Search That Unveils a Monstrous Bond
Summary of Content: Kryptic is a genre-bending Horror-Mystery film that follows Kay Hall (Chloe Pirrie) as she embarks on a hike to Krypto Peak in the Canadian mountains, searching for the missing cryptozoologist and monster hunter, Barb Valentine. Kay is increasingly drawn deeper into the forest, "possessed by a mysterious force," until she realizes she has an "inextricable bond" with the very creature or entity being pursued. The film is characterized by a sexually charged, fragmented narrative that delves into themes of identity confusion, psychological descent, and the collapse of boundaries between human and monster.
Movie Trend: Psychedelic Body Horror and Ambiguous Folk Mystery. It aligns with the trend of indie horror that uses surreal, highly visual aesthetics to explore psychological and bodily transformation, prioritizing atmosphere and thematic ambiguity over traditional horror plot formulas.
Social Trend:Â Exploring Identity Fluidity and Unconventional Sexuality. The film's highly charged atmosphere and focus on roles reversing and unconventional bonds tap into a broader social trend of questioning traditional sexual norms and fixed identities, although critics note this is sometimes handled clumsily.
Director Info: Directed by Kourtney Roy and written by Paul Bromley. The film is a UK/Canadian co-production that relies heavily on stylized cinematography and atmosphere.
Major Awards:Â The film has secured 1 nomination total, indicating early placement on the genre festival circuit, suggesting a focus on visual and conceptual recognition rather than mainstream appeal.
Why it is Trending: The Ambiguous Horror of Identity
Kryptic is trending due to its audacious blend of genres, strong visuals, and the highly polarized—and therefore highly discussed—nature of its ambiguous, messy plot.
Narrative Confusion: The central reason for discussion is the film's deliberate lack of a clear narrative foundation, prompting intense audience debate over what they "just watched," generating significant water-cooler talk, similar to Triangle or David Lynch films.
High Visual Style:Â Critics acknowledge the "great visuals"Â and high production value, which are described as being a cross between "lurid and gross,"Â making the film visually compelling even when the plot fails to cohere.
Genre Subversion:Â The film draws interest from audiences who specifically seek films that do not "follow a formula,"Â using the framework of monster hunting and folk horror to explore deeply unsettling psychological territory.
Polarization:Â The extreme division in user ratings (ranging from 1/10 to 7/10) ensures high visibility and media attention, confirming its status as a divisive, conceptual indie feature.
Why to Watch This Movie: Visually Striking, Narrative-Bending Genre Film
The film is worth watching for its bold aesthetic choices and its ability to maintain suspense despite its fragmented structure.
Visual Audacity:Â The film's primary strength is its style, offering a visually stunning experience with cinematography that is both psychedelic and atmospheric, holding the viewer's attention during slow-paced narrative sections.
Initial Intrigue:Â The opening act is widely praised for being "captivating"Â and instantly generating "so many questions about 'How, why, where when',"Â successfully drawing the viewer into the central mystery of the missing hunter and the creature.
Suspense and Unpredictability: Even with the confusing elements, the narrative's unpredictable nature and overall suspense keep the audience engaged, constantly wondering what type of story they are actually witnessing.
Committed Performances:Â The acting performances are noted as "fair" despite the frustrating script, confirming that the cast, led by Chloe Pirrie, commits fully to the film's ambiguous tone.
Where to watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/kryptic (US), https://www.justwatch.com/ca/movie/kryptic (Canada), https://www.justwatch.com/it/film/kryptic (Italy), https://www.justwatch.com/es/pelicula/kryptic (Spain), https://www.justwatch.com/nl/movie/kryptic (Netherlands)
Link IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22697898/
What Trend is Followed?: The Subversive Body Horror Mystery
The movie follows the specialized trend of the Subversive Body Horror Mystery, blending the environmental atmosphere of folk horror with modern themes of identity crisis and psychedelic breakdown, often resulting in highly ambiguous conclusions.
Folk Horror Setting: The remote Canadian mountains and the search for a missing cryptozoologist align with the contemporary trend of Folk Horror, where nature and isolation unlock ancient or primal terrors.
Psychedelic Fragmentation: The film uses a structure that often loses its foundation, fitting the trend of psychedelic or abstract horror where the protagonist's descent into madness or confusion becomes the main narrative obstacle.
The New Flesh: Themes of sexual transformation and body horror are central, engaging the trend of using genre conventions to explore non-normative identity and bodily fluidity in a lurid and unsettling way.
Movie Plot: The Descent into Krypto Peak
The plot tracks Kay's search as she is drawn into an inescapable destiny with the monster:
The Search: Kay Hall begins her trek into the Canadian mountains, specifically targeting Krypto Peak, searching for the renowned missing monster hunter, Barb Valentine.
The Mysterious Force:Â Kay begins to be "possessed by a mysterious force"Â (implied to be the creature or its influence), which draws her further into the wilderness and closer to the hidden truth.
The Identity Swap:Â The narrative uses fragmented scenes and body horror elements to reveal Kay's "inextricable bond"Â with the creature, suggesting a merger, transformation, or identity swap between hunter and hunted.
The Narrative Collapse:Â As Kay gets closer to the truth, the film begins to "lose itself and a lot of steam,"Â moving away from the thriller foundation into fragmented scenes of sexual charge, flesh, and death.
The Circular Ending:Â The finale attempts a complex, poorly explained plot device (compared to the 2009 film Triangle), leaving the audience with an ambiguous and "very bad take"Â on narrative loops and monster transformation.
Director's Vision: Creating Lurid and Confusing Visuals
Director Kourtney Roy's vision is centered on creating a film that is intentionally "all over the place," using strong visual style and lurid atmosphere to provoke a reaction, even if it sacrifices narrative clarity.
Intentional Ambiguity:Â The director's goal appears to be to avoid a predictable, followable plot, seeking to create discussions initiated because viewers are attempting to "get some type of understanding"Â of what they watched.
Pushing Boundaries:Â The vision aims to portray a world where "the norm is trash and must die,"Â and the "weird... reigns supreme in sex, flesh & death," confirming an attempt to subvert social and cinematic conventions through provocative imagery.
Visual Priority:Â Roy prioritizes "visually great"Â scenes and strong production value over the script's ability to maintain a strong narrative thread or provide sufficient explanation for the core monster/identity mechanics.
Themes: Boundary Collapse: Flesh, Identity, and Morality
The central themes focus on existential terror rooted in the loss of self and physical integrity:
Identity Collapse: The core theme is the confusion and loss of the fixed self, highlighted by Kay's inextricable bond with the creature and the eventual narrative suggestion of one character becoming another.
The Subversive Body: The film uses graphic nudity and sexual content as a thematic tool to explore the collapse of physical and moral boundaries, challenging traditional norms of sex and flesh.
The Hunt as Destiny:Â The search for the monster hunter and the creature is ultimately revealed to be a search for Kay's own fate and true identity, suggesting the monster was always within or waiting for her.
The Failure of Logic:Â The film deliberately explores the theme that a world governed by conventional, logical rules ("the norm") is "trash," and that truth lies in the chaotic, unconventional, and lurid.
Key Success Factors: Visual Audacity and Narrative Risk
The film's success is defined by its strong aesthetic and the audacity of its experimental structure:
Visual Excellence: The strong visual design and production value ensured the film received international festival attention and positive critical commentary on its style.
Experimental Structure: By taking a narrative risk and avoiding formula, the film carved out a niche audience interested in high-concept, ambiguous genre cinema.
Genre Blend: The complex fusion of Horror, Mystery, and Drama allows the film to appeal across multiple niche audiences looking for something unconventional.
Awards and Nominations: Focus on Genre and Indie Festival Recognition
The film has secured 1 nomination total, indicating recognition on the indie and genre film festival circuit, likely in categories related to Best Cinematography or Experimental Direction for its visual style and unconventional approach.
Critics reception: Praise for Style, Confusion over Substance
The 24 critic reviews are strongly divided, reflecting the film's structural issues:
Praise for Style:Â Critics acknowledged the film is "enjoyable nonetheless"Â with great visuals and suspense, despite being a "flawed product."
Critique of Narrative:Â Reviewers noted the main issue is that the plot becomes a "mess of ideas"Â where the director "couldn't decide what kind of story they wanted to tell,"Â resulting in extreme narrative confusion.
Genre Mismatch:Â The film was criticized for being a "drama with light horror elements" rather than the straightforward horror movie expected, failing to deliver the necessary scares or excitement for genre fans.
Reviews: Highly Polarized Audience Experience
IMDb User Rating:Â The film holds a low user rating of 4.0/10Â from 779 votes. This score reflects the intense negative reaction from the broader audience who found the ambiguous, slow-paced narrative and "yucky" sexual content unsatisfying or unnecessarily confusing.
The Pacing Divide:Â User reviews confirm that while the first 30 minutes "will really captivate your attention,"Â the film becomes "unfathomably dull and boring"Â as the narrative stumbles on without explanation.
What Movie Trend film is following: Experimental Body Horror
The film is following the specialized movie trend of Experimental Body Horror, which uses the horror framework to explore psychological distress, identity confusion, and non-normative sexuality with a highly stylized, abstract, and often intentionally confusing aesthetic.
What Big Social Trend is following: The Collapse of Fixed Identity
The big social trend the film is following is the Collapse of Fixed Identity. It uses the monster/human dichotomy and the narrative of sexual and physical transformation to explore the cultural fluidities surrounding identity, morality, and the rejection of established norms.
What Consumer Trend is following: Demand for Psychological Depth in Genre Films
The consumer trend followed is the Demand for Psychological Depth in Genre Films. Audiences are attracted to films that offer strong visual style and an intellectual challenge, seeking content that uses the thriller or horror framework to delve into complex, ambiguous, and often confusing existential ideas about the self.
Final Verdict: A Flawed, Audacious Psychedelic Experiment
Kryptic is a visually arresting and audacious genre experiment that succeeds in its ambition to create a strange, lurid, and atmospheric experience, but ultimately falters in its narrative execution. While its stylized cinematography and strong opening hook promise a compelling mystery, the film's refusal to provide a foundation for its complex ideas of identity and transformation leads to a polarizing, confusing, and ultimately disappointing viewing experience for many.
Key Trend highlighted – The film is a clear example of the experimental horror trend, which prioritizes stylized, lurid visuals and thematic confusion over a coherent plot structure.
Key Insight – The film demonstrates that intentional ambiguity and the rejection of established narrative "formula" can generate strong critical discussion but also risks alienating the broader audience seeking narrative resolution.
Similar movies: Body Horror, Psychological Mystery, and Identity Films
Triangle (2009):Â A tense psychological thriller involving a complex narrative loop and identity confusion, which reviewers directly compared to the ending of Kryptic.
Crimes of the Future (2022):Â A recent example of body horror and psychological drama that uses radical biological changes to explore identity and unconventional sexuality.
It Follows (2014):Â An indie horror film that uses the atmosphere of a mystery and a slow-burn sense of dread to explore themes of sexuality and inescapable fate.