source: The Wasting

Odd story line..keeps you guessing. I watched it for Alexz Johnson. And she KILLED it. Her acting chops have gotten so good. Love her character too. And a ton of her original music appears which is awesome.

The Wasting (2017) is a psychological horror film written and directed by Carolyn Saunders. It is based on a true story. Lauren McQueen gives a stellar performance playing Sophie, the protagonist. She plays a young woman in love battling possessive parents, an eating disorder and an evil supernatural presence. The film dramatizes Sophie's attempts to break free from the controlling influences of her parents but things spiral out of control. Alexz Johnson plays Grace, her devoted, best friend. Brendan Flynn plays Kai, Grace's boyfriend and Liam's brother. Sean Stevenson plays Liam, Sophie's love interest. Gray O'Brien plays IIyas, her overly protective and controlling Chechen father, and Shelagh McLeod plays Valerie, her loving and controlling mother. The film opens with a wide angle shot of a long take of an overcast river landscape. Leaves are fluttering in the wind, and birds are chirping. The camera pans across to a girl sitting on a stone bench lost in her thoughts. She is in focus and as are her immediate surroundings but there appears for a fleeting moment on the greens in the background a blurred image of a person moving towards Sophie and then, the unknown person disappears from view. Sophie's father, IIyas shows up, and asks her to join him on a walk but she declines wishing to be on her own. Sophie's attempts to break free from the controlling influences of her parents, her hallucinations and the supernatural occurrences weave themselves throughout the narrative creating fear, drama and suspense juxtaposed against the bucolic, quaint English countryside. Johnson, Flynn and Stevenson give poignant portrayals of their characters. I was moved by Grace's unwavering support and advocacy for Sophie, and by Liam's love especially when he drew a small ink outline of a heart on her palm to symbolize his love. The Wasting is a visually appealing film juxtaposing the real and unreal which leaves you guessing and questioning what is really happening. Is Sophie a young woman truly battling a supernatural presence or deeply disturbed? Is she sane or insane? Is she being perceived inaccurately by others? Close ups and medium angle shots are interspersed with wide angle shots of the English countryside. The continuous 360 degree camera shot involving Sophie, Grace, Kai and Liam sitting in a circle outdoors enhances the drama adding an additional layer of complexity to the film, and creating a feeling of motion sickness. And the scenes involving Sophie, Liam, Kai and her father IIyas trapped in the institution's decrepit, dank, and dark basement are both nail-biting and bewildering. If you want to find out what happens to Sophie, well, you've got to watch the film. The Wasting is a provocative film. Fans of the psychological horror genre will love it. Saunders has woven many visual and sound elements to create a compelling film that shines a light on perception and reality.

The Wasting was a Canadian-British production that wasn't sure whether it wanted to be a drama or a horror film. The film focuses on Sophie (Lauren McQueen), an 18-year-old girl suffering from anorexia and seems to suffer from hallucinations, but she believes she's being haunted. There was a solid core for a film and Lauren McQueen did give a strong performance as her character degrades physically and mentally. But the rest of the film suffered from weak acting from the North American characters and the horror elements didn't become evident until the final third.

The reviewer who gave this 10/10 mugs to work the the filmmaker !

The idea sounded very interesting and creative, so there was enough to make one want to see it. The cover looked quite eerie. So saw 'The Wasting' with genuine interest and wanting to at least sort of like it even if it had many problems. Seeing it, well 'The Wasting' certainly did have many problems and it is pretty much exactly the same feelings had when watching a few other films recently, except this had better acting. The bad news was that there was not an awful lot good, let alone great, about it, so it was difficult for me to sort of like it, the little that's good being far overshadowed by the bad. Having prepared myself to do that, that was disappointing. Not a terrible film or without redeeming qualities, and there is far worse out there of the genre and overall. Liked the concept for 'The Wasting', the execution was just wanting. 'The Wasting' at least didn't insult my intelligence. It at least didn't make me angry watching it. Despite giving it a relatively low score and negative review, it even didn't make me regret watching it altogether. It started off quite promisingly in an unsettling sort of way and the film didn't look too bad considering the type of film it was, not high art which wasn't expected but not amateurish as was feared. Setting was quite spooky at times as was the lighting and while the acting was not the greatest the actors came over as committed. Unfortunately, 'The Wasting' did lack tension and suspense and the infrequent creepiness was never that eerie and rather obvious. The script is stilted and very repetitive while the direction tends to be static and pedestrian Was let down by the story. Conceptually interesting and wasn't too bad starting, at least too there actually was one, but the dull pace, due to some very uneventful stretches in particularly the middle, and the muddled way it was structured, meaning things didn't make sense, cheapened things. The characters are flimsily developed and bland even though the actors do their best. It can feel vague and while nothing is intelligence insulting there is both ridiculousness and trying to take it too seriously. Overall, lacklustre but not a complete waste of a great idea. 4/10 Bethany Cox

The description for this film was that it was about a girl fighting her parents strict rules and refusal to let her grow up by not eating. While doing this, a ghost appears and it could be real or brought about by her refusal to eat. This was disappointing. It just barely held true to its description. I didn't think that the acting was horrible but it was lacking to be convincing. The story was sorta lame and if you paid attention, it wasn't hard to see where the film was heading. The description made out that the key to the plot was that she was refusing to eat but it wasn't really emphasised and it seemed that it was hardly even worth mentioning. There wasn't much of a "ghost" to speak of either. I don't know. I watch a lot of horror/thrillers and I know it is easy to become jaded after having seen so many films get played out over and over again with only the people, places and situations changing. I have to say that this is one of those films that I feel was a waste of time. Maybe if you never watch horror this might be somewhat scary but for me, nope. It just didn't deliver.

Your time is wasting, it had a good cast, good filming quality, but it was boring, uneven and left me hanging with what I had just wasted my time on in watching it to the end in looking for answers, that only partially were explained in the ghost, they could have done a much better job with someone else in charge of the film, probably.

I fell asleep - I really did. It was that bad...The actors looked bored too, Im not surprised by the terrible repetitive lines they had to deliver from an awful script

I caught this movie the week it opened and am I ever glad I did. I knew nothing about it, except that Alexz Johnson was in it. That was enough to get me to the theatre, and once I was there, I discovered a really cool little movie. Its part horror, part coming of age, and I really appreciated that combination. It gave it many layers, and every scene and every line had a purpose. The story follows a teenage girl, Sophie, whose fights with her father lead to her becoming anorexic (he is a cook and when she refuses his food its like she's scored a point against him). She begins to see a supernatural being, but her friends and family think she is hallucinating. I won't say more than that, except that the story of what is really going on will keep you glued to your seat to the very end. The side-story of how her friends can't face up to her anorexia is also extremely realistic and weaves in seamlessly to enhance the main plotline. It works on all its levels because the acting is consistently excellent from the whole cast, even though most of them are not well known. The four friends are perfect. Alexz Johnson plays her best role yet as a strong, kind of mouthy woman who doesn't take crap. English actress Lauren McQueen plays Sophie without histrionics, but with a subtlety that makes you love her and believe in her. I think she is going to be a huge movie star in the near future. Sean Stevenson as her boyfriend is so sincere, he makes you truly care about his character. The chemistry between him and Sophie reminded me of Twilight (though it's not a vampire movie). Brendan Flynn as his brother Kai is an incredibly interesting actor to watch. For someone who looks the way he does, he seems so vulnerable and likeable that even when he's doing terrible things, you understand why. That's part of what I love about this movie: the characters are not cardboard cutouts. They all have a good side and a bad side, just like real people, and these four actors show us both sides to perfection. I'll add that the movie has a beautiful look as well. The cinematography is epic with amazing scenery and interesting camera work. For a small indie movie, The Wasting overall looks and plays like a much bigger movie. And it definitely keeps you thinking for a long time after you leave the theatre.