SHERYL (2023)

Available On Demand and digital download from B&B Studios!
Directed/Written by Justin Best.
Starring Anthea Neri Best, Shaan Sharma, Christopher Cendana, Jade Ramirez, Chelsea Spirito, Elise Robertson, Adam Bussell, Joseph Ruud
Check out the trailer here!!

Sheryl (Anthea Neri Best) thought things were going ok. She had a boyfriend named Ted (Shaan Sharma) and a job writing at a beauty website. But her boss berates her every day and Ted is a serial killer who drags Sheryl along to help out. Which she does wholeheartedly. When Ted breaks up with Sheryl after a home invasion gone wrong, Sheryl snaps a little. She comes up with an idea for her blog focusing on making the perfect face from perfect parts from perfect people. Not only does she write about this, but Sheryl also decides to seek out these perfect people and steal their perfect parts. And before you can say Lady Leatherface, she starts sewing the parts together to make a skin mask. Now, as luck would have it, Sheryl meets the perfect guy (Christopher Cendana), but it turns out he’s the detective investigating the murders Sheryl is committing. Wackiness ensues.

SHERYL is an offbeat horror comedy heavy on the gore and sitcom hijinks. Yes, the silly coincidences and off the wall antics of the cast do make it feel like occasionally there should be a laugh track attached to it and it should air in the half hour slot after MAD ABOUT YOU, but hiding under that goofy surface is a real tragedy that I couldn’t help but be invested in. The unbelievable moments, like how Sheryl is able to simply walk in and out of these murder scenes covered in blood and how Sheryl seems to just miss out numerous times on discovering what her new boyfriend does for a living, almost does the main themes a disservice. It helps that Anthea Neri Best (who plays Sheryl) has an extremely strong sense of comic timing as does SHERYL writer/director husband Justin Best, so I was willing to overlook the sillier moments of the film.

The main theme of SHERYL is society’s obsession with beauty, specifically one very strange, but somewhat typical young woman and the pressures that woman puts upon herself to be absolutely perfect. The irony of SHERYL is that Anthea Neri Best is a stunningly beautiful woman, which only highlights how damaged she is by the lengths she goes to achieve perfection. SHERYL is a powerful tragedy and thankfully the film gets the goofy stuff out of the way in the first half, so it can focus on this very heartbreaking subject matter as Sheryl continues to slide into complete insanity. The depths this film plummets is quite shocking and those looking for a quirky and safe little horror film are going definitely going to get a shock from where this story goes. Me, I loved how dark SHERYL got. While I think it’s tonally off in the beginning, it finally hits its stride in the latter half and I was wrapped up in Sheryl’s fate completely by the end.

If SHERYL does anything, it proves that, though she is an unconventional leading actress, Anthea Neri Best is a powerhouse performer. She’s drop dead gorgeous, sure and I have to say seeing her in the various revealing outfits she sports in the film was…very nice. But aside from all that, she delivers comedy and tragedy with ease. Sheryl tackles some ugly truths about insecurities many women suffer from in this vain and oblivious day and age we find ourselves living in. These truths are going to fall on deaf ears for most, but if you have even a bit of insight, SHERYL is a movie that might actually make you look at yourself in a new and positive light. That’s something I wasn’t expecting from a movie where the lead actress is doused in blood in every other scene, but that’s what I got from it.

SHERYL is offbeat and over the top and bawdy, gory fun, but it also packs a message coming from a very talented up and coming actress that overflows with wisdom you might learn a little from.