Reed Alexander's Horror Review of "We Need To Do Something" (2021)

I love when simple concepts are done right. This movie reminded me of The Phone Booth (2002) in that it uses one setting and a simple concept and just runs with it. It proves one of my favorite points in really good horror. "Horror is often about not knowing." There is something so terrifying about the unknown and quite a lot you can do with just that as a concept.

And that's all this movie is, one fucking room, four fucking characters, and a fear of the unknown. What it does with so little is more than a lot of movies do with dozens of sets and a way bigger budget. But it makes for such a great fucking atmosphere. The whole concept is that a family is trapped together in their bathroom and shit gets claustrophobic. If it didn't set the right kind of atmosphere and sense of desperation, this would be a very different review. So right off the bat, a simple concept with the atmosphere done right.

And of course, the acting and characters were fantastic. I do have a slight problem with one of them but I'll have to get to that in the spoilers. Quite frankly, the acting was way better than I would have expected for a shoe-stinger like this. I'm not sure if they're going to be winning any awards for it, but it was damn good. Even the child actor did a good job. But it was the little things about the characters that really tied it together. The mom who's phoned in her marriage and is likely cheating on her husband. The asshole alcoholic dad who you just know is going to try and be a total tyrant about the whole situation. The little brother who is naturally a total turd to his older sister because that's little brothers for you. And the teenage pixy girl who would much rather be doing anything else with her girlfriend.

Yeah, the characters are a little cliche but as I'm often to say, cliche is how we, as the audience, can quickly relate to the characters and immerse ourselves in the plot. For what it is, it's done right.

And the plot is ever so good. You see, it's not just that the family is trapped inside a bathroom with their personal demons on their sleeve, it's also that something completely fucked is going on outside. It does smack as kinda unusual that no one ever shows up to rescue the family in what appears to be a densely populated neighborhood. Anyone outside should clearly be able to see the tree that fell on the house and trapped the family inside. So why doesn't anyone come for what feels like days? To find out, you're just gonna have to watch the fucking movie.

So if you can't tell, I do absolutely recommend this movie. I do consider it a "must watch." Horror heads and general adult audiences alike. It's just a damn good movie.

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SPOILERS!!!

I do kinda have a bone to pick with how the movie almost blames the crazy happenings on the teenage pixy girl. You see, what's going on outside almost feels like the rapture in the biblical sense. Before this all goes down, the Pixy girl and her girlfriend cast some sort of spell. Now she basically blames herself for armageddon. And they don't really do anything with that. They just kinda let it hang in their air like the whole thing really was her fault. There's no resolution so the character is just left to eat that guilt for basically no reason. It's kinda a fucked up thing to do with her character seeing as how the movie is almost punishing her for being a lesbian practitioner of Wicca. It doesn't go so far as to actually blame it all on her, but it also doesn't not blame it all on her. It would be far too easy for any right wings jackhole to come to their own conclusion about the weird turn of events. A sorta "See, I told you the gays would bring about the apocalypse."

I'm absolutely sure that wasn't the intention, but it does kinda come off that way.

The ambiguity aside, the movie is quite fantastic and I absolutely recommend it.