Fiery Pen

(The gist: I always enjoy a good horror comedy, but I am quite picky about the ratio of horror to comedy in such a movie. The Voices pulls it off perfectly. I enjoyed everything about the movie. From Ryan Reynold’s exceptional portrayal of a sweet schizophrenic killer to the gory humor of talking severed heads in a freezer. Not only will I watch it again; I will buy it!)

Horror comedy is always a fun genre for me to indulge; however, I require the right balance of horror with my comedy. If the film swings too far toward the comedy end of the spectrum, you end up with something too similar to the Scary Movie franchise. While often plenty hilarious, this variety of movie fails to serve my horror needs. I still require gore, fear, depravity—just with an extra helping of comedy infused into it.

The Voices accomplishes that perfect blend of horror and comedy. The Voices worked for me as a horror movie, a comedy movie, and simply just a movie. Spoiler alert: I loved it.

The Voices is about Jerry, an endearing schizophrenic who has voices in his head that are manifested in his pets. Jerry works packing boxes and diligently goes to see his therapist as ordered by his parole. Only, he does not take his medication, which only becomes a problem when his crush stands him up for a date.

Jerry is absolutely brilliantly played by Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds so often plays a suave, humorous character, but he did an excellent job of portraying a socially awkward psychotic. He so effectively creates empathy for the character. I felt for Jerry the entire time; I rooted for him, despite any sins he may commit. Reynolds is even impressive as the voices of each of his pets, embodying each with entire characterizations through their accents.

The story has the right amount of murder and gore and serial killer to make it adequate as a horror movie. However, there is also enough humor in Jerry’s awkwardness and talking severed heads and the like to make it fun. Like I said, it was the perfect blend.

Undoubtedly, my favorite part was the way the movie portrayed Jerry’s mental illness. What the audience sees is a direct reflection of Jerry’s mind state. While Jerry is deep in the throughs of his schizophrenia and chatting away with his voices/pets, the set takes on a manic appearance, with an immaculate and bright apartment. However, when he does take his medication and loses the voices, we glimpse reality with him. His apartment is reduced a disgusting mess, covered with evidence of his murders.

The oscillation between the two realities and the reaction of the other characters is just fascinating and really adds to the story.

I can honestly say that I have no complaints about The Voices. I loved the plot, the pace, the tone, the characters, the acting, the visuals. I just loved the movie and will, without a doubt, soon own it.

Thank you, random Redbox find!