I liked it, but not as much as I was hoping to. Wounds is a low-key creature feature film starring Armie Hammer and Dakota Johnson. Directed by Babak Anvari, and based on the horror novella titled “The Visible Filth” by Nathan Ballingrud. This horror flick unfortunately didn’t deliver.

The premise of Wounds was interesting and urges me to see more of it. A group of college kids drops a phone after getting involved in a bar fight. Bartender (played by Armie Hammer) picks up the said phone and took it home. Unknowingly, the phone was connected to some other worldly dimension, specifically to one creature that messes up your mind.

Characters

The cast were okay but forgettable, the story itself was the main problem for me:

• Not really a fan of Armie Hammer, and am not a fan now, his NPC-like side character had so many personal problems it was actually annoying.
• While Dakota Johnson didn’t get much screen time, her appearances were noteworthy. Though I could say she was a miscast here, not because she didn’t perform well, but she was too good of a name to be here.
• Zazie Beetz was meh, also didn’t care for her in Bullet Train (2022).
• To be honest, I think I’d enjoy it more if the movie was focused on those kids and not Armie’s supposed NPC character.

Music

The music of Wounds however was on point, with those eerie, kind of hypnotic elongated sounds that could get you stuck staring at something for hours. Couple that with the slow moving portal that we see in Carrie’s (played by Dakota Johnson) laptop.

Great start, fail of an ending

It was actually intriguing the first and second act, they focused on the build up of the said creature from the portal. Showing scenes of gore, a decapitated head, and a slow downward spiral of Will and Carrie’s mental state. Unfortunately, all of those build-ups lead to an underwhelming finale.

Plot holes

There were so many unanswered questions, plot holes that they showed during the build up.

• Will had a rash, which we never saw what came of it.
• Carrie staring at her laptop with the creepy slow moving tunnel, we never knew what the purpose of that was.
• Why cockroaches?
• So many why’s and how’s that the movie ends up looking like a college thesis with a failing grade.

The main plot had so much potential but got ruined by too much build up and sort of a rushed ending. Using the wound on Eric’s cheek which he got during the bar fight in the first act, hoping to put that “it has always been there”, or “they already planted it from the start” kind of thinking didn’t really worked out for them. I mean, come on, a creature that can manipulate your mind and give hallucinations, and it came from a dimension portal? I’d watch that any given day. I hope someone remakes this into a whole new film. So much potential went down the drain on this one.

Conclusion

Wounds got me interested the first and second act, it was actually a fun watch. I would’ve liked it more though if they invested more on the lore and not what it could do to people. The end reveal of Wounds was so underwhelming that I didn’t care for it, and I’m a creature-feature fan at that. I’d say its worth a watch but don’t expect too much from it.