Nails (2017)

Directed by: Dennis Bartok | 85 minutes | horror | Actors: Shauna Macdonald, Steve Wall, Leah McNamara, Ross Noble, Richard Foster-King, Robert O’Mahoney, Charlotte Bradley, Muireann D’Arcy, Veronica O’Reilly, Conor Scott, Trish Groves, Eileen Doyle, Simon O’Connor Dennis Bartok

Sports coach Dana Milgrom is involved in a serious car accident. She is still alive, but paralyzed and therefore feels like a prisoner in her own body. Dana is in the hospital and is convinced that an evil entity is nearby. She thinks he wants to kill her and warns her family. However, Dana’s family thinks she is psychologically confused and hardly takes her claims seriously. Terrified Dana suspects that the creepy figure that haunts the hospital is also targeting the people she loves. But what can she do? After all, she can’t get out of bed…

‘Nails’ certainly won’t win the originality prize. The story is a typical case of dime, while the film also thematically seeks out familiar places. There’s nothing on the show that you haven’t already seen in a slightly modified form in other suspense-rich horror films. Nevertheless, ‘Nails’ is not even such a bad picture. The thin plot is partly compensated by a good elaboration. Director Dennis Bartok, for example, succeeds very well in portraying the whole in an atmospheric way. The gloomy hospital corridors, bathed in sterility and an ominous semi-darkness, provide a fine backdrop for a film of this type. The build up is also good and proceeds steadily, starting slowly and slowly working towards an acceptable climax. Some scares seem a bit obligatory and clichéd, while other scares work really well. The evil Nails, the eerie ghost of a deceased child killer, looks convincing and gets (thankfully) a balanced amount of screentime. After all, many horror films are ruined by showing the übergrises of the story too much or too early in full regalia. Critical viewers will be able to spot some mistakes, improbabilities (in this hospital, for example, it is very easy to walk into patients unannounced) and plot holes. However, it doesn’t become nonsense, so the imperfections are rarely disturbing enough to ruin the film.

High-quality film art is not ‘Nails’. But the proper elaboration of a story type that is not very innovative ultimately results in a film that is rarely boring and is well worth a viewing for horror and thriller fans.