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WE MIGHT HURT EACH OTHER (aka PENSIVE, RUPINTOJELIS, 2022)

Directed by Jonas Trukanas.
Written by Titas Laucius, Jonas Trukanas.
Starring Sarunas Rapolas Meliesius, Gabija Bargailaite, Marius Repsys, Donatas Simukauskas, Kipras Masidlauskas, Povilas Jatkevicius, Martynas Berulis, Saule Rasimaite, Inga Puriuskyte

On the day after their high school graduation, the entire graduating class decide to take a trip to a cabin in the middle of nowhere, Lithuania to party for the weekend. All eyes are on the star athlete who has plans on heading to America to compete with the pros, but one of the more unpopular students Marius (Sarunas Rapolas Meliesius) longs for the attention the star jock gets, including his girlfriend Brigita (Gabija Bargailaite). But as the party revs up, the kids discover a circle of statues in the middle of a field and begin destroying them, which seems to spark the ire of a masked monster named Algis (Marius Repsys), who sharpens his blades and decides to unleash vengeance on the vandalizing kids.

WE MIGHT HURT EACH OTHER is a fun throwback to 80’s slashers right down to its burned murderer who bares a strong resemblance to Cropsy from THE BURNING and wears a wooden mask not unlike Jason’s hockey mask. The film spends an awful lot of time allowing the viewer to get to know the cast, which gets pretty tedious as nothing really horror-like occurs until the 45minute mark. But at least, by that time, we know the ins and outs of the various relationships, friendships, and rivalries that the group shares. When the carnage starts, it is quite powerful as the killer simply walks out of the field and starts slashing away at the party-goers. This type of blatant carnage makes things feel more like the chaos of a mass shooting than an “And then there were none…”-style scenario as the kids are running around and trying to find a successful hiding place so the killer won’t find them. Unfortunately, these dumbass kids choose to all hide in the same spot, making it pretty easy for the killer to wade through them with his cutlery. This leads to one very effective scene where the survivors hide among the dead bodies in order to hide from the madman. All of these scenes occur so fast and makes for quite the shocking sequence of events, but man, does it take a hell of a long time to get to the good stuff in this movie.

There are a few ominous scenes that suggest something awful lurks in the shadows at the cabin as soon as the group shows up. The statues are quite ominous—they’re tall obelisk-type structures with arms reaching up and covering their faces. There’s a hint at some kind of folk supernatural horror going on, but it never really has a payoff. These statues seem to symbolize victims of the past, which tempt the kids to mock and deface them all the more in rebellion. Seeing these kids go nuts on the sculptures reminded me of the fury that occurs at some of the assemblies to tear down monuments and statues in recent years around America. I don’t know if this film is making some kind of comment about all of that. It being a Lithuanian film, I kind of doubt it. But I couldn’t help but associate the kids’ disrespect and disregard for the past with this modern American social dilemma.

WE MIGHT HURT EACH OTHER works in establishing its cast with memorable characters. Marius is a complex character, as is Brigita. The way their stories advance and develop sort of needed that long build-up we got in the first forty-five minutes, but I fear that’ll be too long for many viewers to wait for the horror stuff to happen. I liked the look of the killer. It was just different enough from Jason to be fun while still basically looking a lot like the popular slasher. This isn’t a brainless slasher film. It’s quite emotionally considerate. If only the leadup to the killings been shorter, possibly with some killing occurring away from the group before the killer’s head-first rampage into the thick of them, I think this would have felt like a more even movie. As is, it’s wobbly, but still a solid slasher once the first drop of blood is finally spilled.

Check out the trailer here!!