It had been 72 hours. Three long days chained to a radiator in a dark room somewhere in the bowels of the Mothership. I'd been knocked out and woken up here with no explanation. Even Choi Min-sik had a TV. I only considered myself fortunate that I didn't have a daughter.
Suddenly, I was blinded by a crack of light. The door slid open and Gort stood there. I asked him what the heck he thought he was doing. "You have been neglecting your duties playing something called Skyrim. I searched the Earth internet and found several articles advising it was a form of addictive homosexual pornography and that it would warp your mind," he answered. "You can come out when you promise to stop playing."
"...but... but... but..." I stuttered futily as the door clanked shut.
A cover quote for indie horror flick Resolution proudly boasts it is "the film that Cabin In The Woods should have been". Uh... yeah, right...
Expectant father and all-round good guy Michael gets an email from childhood friend and man with beard, Chris containing nothing but a video of Chris tweaking on crack and a map to his current squat. Finding this completely legit, Michael drives out to Chris' shack, tazers his buddy and handcuffs him to a radiator, insisting he go cold turkey - as you do. Fending off other addicts looking to get a debt repaid and the land owners who want them out, Michael starts to get through to Chris. So far, so melodramatic.
"This is a movie that throws a lot of stuff up on the screen, but some of it does stick."
Things take a turn for the weird, however, when a series of clues left lying around lead Michael on a scavenger hunt. The clues move from eerie Chainsaw Massacre-esque discarded artefacts, to a range of recordings of events that couldn't possibly have been recorded. Just as everything starts to unravel, Michael finds out Chris didn't send him an email...
While the plot sounds compelling and the acting is at the higher end of the amdram spectrum, Resolution is more Kubrick than Craven. It's a slow movie that intentionally sets up plot threads and characters then drops them completely. When the story finally comes to a head, you'll be disappointed if you're expecting any straightforward answers.
This is a movie that throws a lot of stuff up on the screen, but some of it does stick. The mystery does engage you and, while not much happens, there is a reasonable amount of tension built up as the story idles along. The ending may not be the summation you're looking for, but it will stick with you after the movie, if only because you'll still be trying to puzzle out what it meant.
Resolution comes out on UK DVD today