this review contains spoilers for the film we need to do something.
on a bleary sick day, i curled up on the couch, plugged some headphones into my roku remote, and settled in with the 2020 horror film we need to do something. i'd chosen this movie because, a week or two before on twitter, i'd seen max booth iii, author of the novella we need to do something and producer/screenwriter of the film adaptation, announce the film was available on hulu (to seemingly even the creators' surprise). this one ticked all the boxes i'd been waiting to cross off my list: it's a one-location movie about a family's descent into madness as they wait for help that might not even be coming; there's a not-seen-on-screen monster that delivers an actually-perfect scare; and with a run time of only a little over 90 minutes, it doesn't require a huge time commitment.
i'll admit that the older i've gotten, the shorter my attention span has gotten, too. usually even with movies i like, i'll glance at my phone or have to get up and take a lap to stretch my legs. not here. we need to do something had me tensed on the couch, gripping the remote, mouth literally agape. with impressive gross-out effects, great performances from the whole cast, and a story that never veered too far to one side, we need to do something was a delight for any psychological horror fan, and especially any horror fan who's interested in pandemic-themed horror.
if you'd like my spoiler-free opinion, we need to do something isn't perfect - there are some moments that don't quite hit and some tentative connections, and in my humble opinion there definitely should've been more of the excellently-scary 'good boy' character. but the thing i loved about this movie was how passionate it was. you could feel the love that went into the creation of this film. we need to do something was presented as if the creators have a genuine love for the horror genre in the midst of a horrific time (production took place in 2020). it's so admirable, it's so inspiring, it's so scary.
warning: this is an unrated horror movie with a lot of violence and gore. there's also rampant alcoholism, familial abuse, self-harm, the objectification of lesbians, murder....i could go on. so for younger viewers, this one might not be for you. viewer discretion is highly advised.
and with that, on to the spoilers!
a very long summary
in we need to do something, protagonist melissa rushes home from her girlfriend amy's house just in time for a tornado siren to usher her family - mother diane, father robert, and younger brother bobby - into the safety of their bathroom. tensions are already high between mel's parents, as her father is an alcoholic and her mother is in an implied extramarital affair. not to mention mel is going through something, too - she's desperately sending repeated (unanswered) texts to her girlfriend, begging to know she's all right. then the storm hits, a tree blocks the bathroom door, and the family is trapped. but it's just a storm! they'll be out of there in no time...right?
to sum it all up, melissa and amy accidentally ushered in a demonic apocalypse while casting a spell they found online. the demon - monster, evil entity, whatever you want to call it - was hiding dormant inside amy, and she cited it as the source of her mental illness ("i used to be dead"). when joe, the stalker who followed melissa and amy around, used photos of amy to create deepfake pornography depicting her, amy enlisted melissa's help to cast a warning spell on joe so he would leave them alone. the spell required a cow's tongue, for which the girls substituted melissa's dead dog's tongue ("sorry, Spot"). amy, however, actually cast a necromancy spell on herself to stop feeling dead. this spell awakened the evil residing in her and took revenge on joe, causing him to choke on his tongue in his sleep. amy and melissa tried casting one more spell to set everything right once again...and of course, that didn't work. the evil creature continued haunting melissa and her family until all of them eventually died.
i include this lengthy explanation because, if you go on google and read the plentiful one-star reviews of this movie, nobody understood what was going on. to be fair, this explanation is never succinctly delivered, but comes more organically through purposefully-messy conversations, quickly blurted-out lines, and tearful confessions. if you're not accustomed to stories like this, and if you go into it expecting a clear-cut-and-dry movie with perfectly-seasoned story elements like the thing or the evil dead, you'll be confused and disappointed. there's a reason it's called psychological horror. anyway. moving on.
melissa's family members - and seemingly, the whole world - are unfortunate casualties in this purgatory-like punishment intended for melissa. bobby is the first to go, but this death comes at the fault of the father, robert, who tried to force bobby out the crack in the door and unwittingly let a rattlesnake (one he already knew about!) into the bathroom, where it bit bobby on the arm and eventually killed him. next comes robert himself after biting the head off the snake and using the snake's body as a whip on diane. melissa, using the shard of broken mirror robert broke off to eat his own dead son (this movie is a lot), stabs her father to death. diane finally ventures out into the world after chipping a hole in the wall, only to bring the demon haunting the family straight into the bathroom where it kills diane and melissa.
and this summary doesn't even mention my favorite part of the movie, good boy, voiced by ozzy osbourne for one delicious line!
thoughts on unhappy/happy endings
in brian tallerico's review of the movie, he nods to the pandemic elements of the story, and it's hard not to draw similar conclusions, especially with the ending that's unfortunately my least favorite thing about the film.
"so much of the world thought it was returning to normal in the spring and summer only to return to more mandates and precautions," tallerico says. "after all, maybe we really don’t want to leave the comfort of the family bathroom."
with this interpretation, the ending makes sense. it's complete, it's in line with the overall theming of the movie, and it resonates with a covid-minded audience. it's more interesting when you read that the script was completed pre-covid-19 (yes, i'm linking to wikipedia here, i'm feeling lazy).
still, though. as i was waiting with melissa for diane to come back from her voyage into the world, i couldn't help but wonder, "where else can this story go?" mel has brutally murdered her father, she's indirectly caused her own little brother to die, and she's brought on the apocalypse. it'd make since, narratively, for the film to end by: a) diane getting the hell out and saying see ya to her daughter (or alternatively being killed off-screen by the evil thing mel helped bring to life) or b) for melissa and diane to face the world outside together, holding onto one another in the aftermath of both of their mistakes, their fate left open to interpretation as the audience is left in the bathroom and we watch the sunlight filter in through the escape diane worked tirelessly to provide. of course, with ending b, the audience can be given a little bit of dreadful ambiguity with an echoing demonic roar somewhere in the distance. (who's a good boy!)
i know stories have to follow certain beats to be categorized in certain genres (romances must have happy endings, etc.), but i feel like where horror often goes wrong is when it backs itself into a pessimistic corner and assumes all endings must be bad ones. halloween couldn't end with laurie killing the madman, we need more sequels, damn it! friday the 13th can't have a happy ending for the final girl - make the evil man-creature-thing leap up from the depths of the lake and get her! not that these films are bad - i'm not that masochistic - but they're genre-setting hallmarks that often guide the way horror is made.
alternatively, look to alien, the exorcist, and poltergeist for movies with endings that are less than ideal (major character deaths, the death of innocence, the death of the american dream, etc.), but can still be categorized in the end as, i'd say, happy ones. the ones who need saving/redemption are saved: ripley, regan, the freeling family - and audiences can leave the experience fully satisfied. in more recent experiences, see his house and the witch for movies with endings that aren't perfect for the protagonists but are still, in their own way, upbeat and optimistic.
i guess what i'm trying to say here is that i don't think diane or even melissa deserved the ending they got in we need to do something. bobby was a sacrifice that indicated just how bad things were; robert became irredeemable and had to be stopped. diane's only flaw was doggedly holding onto optimism in the face of utter despair, and melissa's only flaw was being young, naive, and loving her girlfriend too much. i can see where their naivety was punished by the brutality of the world, even in a non-covid sense, and i can accept the ending. but that doesn't mean i can't point a shaking finger at my favorite optimistic-ending horror movies and wish things could've turned out differently.
you can watch the movie on hulu (linked in the first paragraph), or you can buy the novella from perpetual motion machine publishing. even with me projecting my own opinions on horror onto the movie, it's definitely good, and it's definitely worth a watch if you're waiting for a new, cool, passionate movie.
bonus: homophobia was not a running theme in this movie. it's refreshing to have LGBTQ+ characters without their identity being on trial.