"Mercy" Just a lower class B movie or a future loved film? (Film review of a Netflix original)

Last night when the trees where shaking with the wind and the floor was getting wet by the rain, I grabbed a blanked, open an ice cream box and watched the new Netflix original movie called “Mercy”

The film was written and directed by Chris Sparling, a young filmmaker with credits that include: “Buried”

and “The Sea of Trees”

Both written by him, but as far has directing goes he had only done one small movie and, that makes it difficult to get a bigger movie made. While trying to get “Mercy” of the ground, he tried to option the script for another director to do it, among other alternatives. He then decided, he could and should directed it. That is when he had a meeting with Netflix and they decided to make it with him.

Let’s have a look at the film. SPOILERS ahead!!!

When I clicked on the film I saw it had a one star rating… Personally I do not give much importance to ratings, but it got me wondering.

This movie is a bit different from what we are used to see now a days. Starting with the structure. The movie is not linear, it goes back and forth, something we can find in a very accentuated way in early Tarantino work.

The film starts as a family drama, we see four siblings a sick mother and the patriarcal character. We see that this family is charged with conflict and friction. The mother is dying and they are deciding if they should give her a mysterious medicine ( implied that is some sort of euthanasia) left by a “Doctor” earlier.

The family talks about the fact that her first husband ( and father of two of the siblings) left her some money and in relation to that it is also very clear that the current husband has no intention of sharing it with his two step sons.

Night comes … and the film changes tone and direction. The two brothers get up in the night and see that the phone cable has been cut of, the door is open and their half brothers are not in the house.

Two masked individuals are trying to get into the room where the sick mother can be found. One of the sons ends up being shot in the head and the other ends up barricading himself inside that same room.

Then, the first linear rupture comes…

We go back in time to the same day. Now we see what happen to the two brothers and Father that where missing before. They also got killed (by accident) by the masked people. We see that they are not the “villains” as it was suggested. We also see that the masked people are far more than two.

The third part of the story:

The only surviving family member is sitting in the room. He grabs an axe and decides to confront the men in the house. We find out that the intruders are not some genuine hostile people, but are church members that seem to care about the mother. In the end the son is forced to give his mother the medicine. In that moment we discover that it was in fact a healing medicine instead of killing injection. A subtle twist with a huge impact. It means that the family was actually waiting for the mother to die and the intruders where actually trying to safe her. Making everything we just saw much more darker. Then the movie ends in a way I personally like and find appropriate. We listen to a gun shot of screen. (I think what happened is that the son killed himself out of regret for his actions. )

In my opinion “Mercy” is a good, smart and entertaining low budget film. A well executed contrived thriller taking place in one house. It shows us some complicated family dynamics and it sacred us … showing a dark side of humanity in an engaging way and it respects the audience. Unlike a lot of films, I did not know everything I was going to see after 10 minutes. The story is actually a story, meaning it unfolds as it goes.

What did you think about the film? What does the ending mean? Let me know?