The Gift (2015) - Joel Edgerton

Joel Edgerton's directorial debut, The Gift, is a fun, twisty horror/thriller which subverts many tropes of the genre, delivering a devilish little yarn of a thriller that keeps the viewer guessing and engaged until its final frame.  The film is centered around a young, happily married couple in Simon and Robyn, who have just relocated to the area of Simon's old stomping grounds, ensnared by a business opportunity they couldn't pass up.  Their lives are going as planned, that isuntil a chance encounter with an old acquaintance from Simon's past, Gordo, threatens to shatter their marital bliss.  The Gift is a film that starts in a very conventional way, being a dime-a-dozen "mysterious stranger" horror film that relies very much on ambiguous intentions of this character to create tension.  Gordo is a character who doesn't come across as "socially normal", and through a series of encounters he has with Simon and Robyn, as well as a few mysterious gifts, the film sets up this expectation of the genre centered around Gordo, creating a quiet sense of unease around this character who seems like he could snap any minute.  Everything is set up in the narrative for the viewer to expect Gordo to be the antagonist of this film which is exactly when The Gift subverts expectations, revealing that Gordo's actions and social anxieties may in fact be a bi-product of Simon's actions many years ago.  The Gift's greatest attribute is its ability to keep the protagonist and antagonist of its story a bit of mystery through the back half of the film, as I found myself flip flopping a few times back-and-forth between the character's of Simon & Gordo, unsure whose side I am on.  Having a clearly defined side is a major proponent of the horror/thriller genre but this film denies such expectations.  The finale of The Gift is quietly sinister and I really enjoyed how the film itself captures the pain centered around uncertainty and simply not-knowing something one needs or wants to know.  I won't go into details, but there is no blood spilled, no extravagant action/thriller set-piece, but a simple sequence which leaves Simon flattened, forced to live with a dark cloud of doubt hanging over his head for the rest of his life.  Featuring solid photography, strong performances, and a nice brooding atmosphere, Joel Edgerton's The Gift is a solid directorial debut from the actor, a film that manipulates the expectations of the genre while delivering a story that starts off as a Mystery/Thriller, ends like a Revenge film, and along the way makes it very unclear to audience who they should be rooting for.  

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