My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To: A Movie Review

⚠️ HEAVY SPOILER WARNING⚠️

Released in July 2020 by director John Cuartas, My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To is Rotton Tomatoes' top horror film. At 98% on the Tomatometer critics describe this film as:

Unsettling and compelling in equal measure, My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To casts a visually striking and thought-provoking spell. - Rotton Tomatoes.

As a horror fan, both written and cinematic, I had to see this highly rated film. Though, I was a bit skeptical of the tipped scales between critic and audience. Audience ratings of this film are at 58%. The Greatest Showman where the audience score is at 86% while the critics' ratings are 86%, I already know how this film is going to play out.

The IMDB description tries its best not to give too much away to the future viewer:

Two mysterious siblings find themselves at odds over care for their frail and sickly younger brother.

With most films, I like the appetizers - the trailers.

With heavy silence and moments of thoughtful dialogue, I had flashbacks of film classes in college. Movies built to provoke thought are usually high on the film critics' radar. No jumpscares or heavy ominous music while the main character creeps down a hallway. Those are overplayed and predictable.

Though, aren't these slower films?

But I didn't want to get ahead of myself. I wanted to give the film a chance. I do consider myself an amateur critic, but with a more generous outlook on the product.

After the first scene, I knew what was happening - due mostly to the trailer. A man prowling the streets in a pickup, offering a ride to a homeless man. We're in the horror genre, not the feel-good comedy where he's going to take him home to meet the family.

The scene plays out as you would think. The homeless man is attacked by the pickup driver and taken into his house.

The pickup driver meets a woman, his sister, in the kitchen where they carefully strip the homeless fellow's clothing and then proceed to extract his blood into a metal cylinder. The scene cuts to a spigot on the cylinder cleanly pouring blood into a bowl which is taken to a frail young man to drink.

Any horror fan will already know where this is going - vampire.

Granted the plot is clearly known at this point, I wanted to watch as the story of this little family unfolds.

As the description explains, the three people living together are two brothers and a sister. The sister, Jessie, is clearly the backbone of the household. Ensuring money is brought home by working at a diner, keeping tabs on the blood being brought into the house for her brother, and making sure the family is safe.

Their younger brother, Thomas, is not to be awake during the day and must stay inside. His "condition" is restrictive and, in a twist from most vampire lore, he is very weak. He walks about the house as though he has a muscular deficiency.

Jessie and Thomas' brother, Dwight, is in charge of the dirty work. Though, we see early on that he is disgusted by this responsibility and the emotional weight it bears on him.

As the film's plot continued to unfold, I understood the critics' interest in the movie. My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To creates a drama behind each scene that leaves the viewer wanting more. Sure, the jumpscares are minimal and there's no heavy music or fast love scenes. The emotion behind each moment builds into the story that allows the viewer to sympathize with the grotesque nature of their survival as a family unit.

Our hearts are pulled in various directions with each thought-provoking scene.

When I committed to watching this movie, I almost quit part way through thinking how absurdly boring and predictable it felt. However, each scene added another layer, holding me to see it through to the end.

Something reminiscent of Rosemary's Baby and Psycho, My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To is a modern classic horror movie worth watching.