I have to admit, I was tempted to turn this one off around half way through too. The pacing is not great in the first half and it seems to just keep lingering on the not particularly interesting personal life of the not particularly likable main character and you start wondering if this is going to be one of those Open House type movies where it just endlessly hints at a climax that never arrives or another generic haunting/curse movie that's just 80 minutes of filler and 10 minutes of CG jump scares.
Eventually it does turn a corner into something much more interesting though. More pieces start falling into place and the almost painfully vague shape of the mysterious threat finally starts to become more clear, though you do have to pay very close attention to see all those pieces as some of them fly by so subtly or so quickly that you can easily miss them. The ending in particular ties it all together in a pretty powerful way that's going to have you thinking about it for a while.
Ultimately, to me, Wounds isn't really even a story about supernatural evil. It's a story about being hopelessly lost, hitting rock bottom, and looking to desperately fill that void with anything no matter how harmful it might be to yourself and others. In Will's case it was a supernatural entity that chose to take advantage of his emptiness, but he could have just as easily fallen into drugs, a cult, crime, a hate group, etc. I know because I used to be just like him. I was lucky enough to meet someone that snapped me out of it and helped me turn my life around, but I often think about how much further I could have fallen if things had been different, and it's a pretty scary thought, so you can see why this story could really hit home with me, and I can understand why someone who hasn't been through this (or is still in denial that they're currently going through it) wouldn't feel the same impact.
While I feel that Wounds stumbles a few times along the way, in the end it really had something to say. Something that you may find yourself turning around like a little puzzle box in your mind for some time after it concludes, and that's the mark of a story that's more effective than not to me. 8/10.
Eventually it does turn a corner into something much more interesting though. More pieces start falling into place and the almost painfully vague shape of the mysterious threat finally starts to become more clear, though you do have to pay very close attention to see all those pieces as some of them fly by so subtly or so quickly that you can easily miss them. The ending in particular ties it all together in a pretty powerful way that's going to have you thinking about it for a while.
Ultimately, to me, Wounds isn't really even a story about supernatural evil. It's a story about being hopelessly lost, hitting rock bottom, and looking to desperately fill that void with anything no matter how harmful it might be to yourself and others. In Will's case it was a supernatural entity that chose to take advantage of his emptiness, but he could have just as easily fallen into drugs, a cult, crime, a hate group, etc. I know because I used to be just like him. I was lucky enough to meet someone that snapped me out of it and helped me turn my life around, but I often think about how much further I could have fallen if things had been different, and it's a pretty scary thought, so you can see why this story could really hit home with me, and I can understand why someone who hasn't been through this (or is still in denial that they're currently going through it) wouldn't feel the same impact.
While I feel that Wounds stumbles a few times along the way, in the end it really had something to say. Something that you may find yourself turning around like a little puzzle box in your mind for some time after it concludes, and that's the mark of a story that's more effective than not to me. 8/10.