Director
Peter Cornwell
Cast
Shirley Knight - Mercy
Chandler Riggs - George
Frances O'Connor - Rebecca
Joel Courtney - Buddy
Dylan McDermott - Jim Swann
Leave it to Stephen King to take those things we hold precious, such as the family Saint Bernard, or the privacy we treasure despite the vulnerability we endure when going to the bathroom (i.e. King's Dreamcatcher) and turn them into something frightening which may linger in our memory forever. King has a fair number of tropes he's turned into his own proverbial shower scene from Psycho.
In the case of the 2014 movie Mercy, (who's heard of it?) it's the relationship between a grandmother and a grandson.
This is taken from King's short story Gramma found in his anthology book Skeleton Crew.
I found this title when searching for an episode of The Twilight Zone reboot series that ran from 1985 to 1986. There was an episode titled Gramma from the first season also adapted from King's short story. The episode featured Barret Oliver (Bastian from The Neverending Story) as the main character, George. I had planned to review the episode.
For an obscure title, Mercy is not without some big names - Chandler Riggs (Walking Dead) as the main character, George, and Shirley Knight (As Good as it Gets) as his grandmother, Mercy. It also stars Dylan McDermott and Frances O'Connor.
The movie starts off fairly strong in intrigue and shock - an opening shot of a young woman having a baby inside her home as her husband does himself in with an ax to the head - but it's mixed with what sounds like lighthearted narration from George. It doesn't fit together well.
He has a strong relationship with his grandmother, Mercy. When she becomes sick, Mercy has to live in an old folk's home.
However, after some time passes, the nursing home informs the family they don't want to care for her anymore. She's become to strange for their staff. And Mercy has to come back home. Her daughter, Rebecca (Frances O'Conner) who's a single mom, and her sons, George and Buddy (Joel Courtney) come to live with her as her caregivers.
Despite just how much grandma isn't herself, George tries to really be there for her. The worse her health goes, the darker things become. The situation finally boils over as evil secrets begin to emerge, revealing Mercy's demons, her sinister past, and the hell that's behind her decline.Riggs portrays his 13-year old (give or take) character taking care of his declining grandma as best he can. His performance is fairly solid. He had a big part to play, and pulled it off well enough. The effort is there. The other performances come across as forced and lacking enthusiasm, especially from grandma herself.
The tension and turmoil within the family was a well done detail to the story. As evil influences have been at work with grandma for years, the devil's footprints (figuratively speaking) have trekked through the family since their beginnings starting with Mercy, and it shows. It was a small detail that may or may not have been intentional, but it was portrayed and it made sense. Mercy's secrets are slowly revealed at just enough pace to have kept me interested.
But as the final act commences, things became confusing, with elements strung together. George runs around too much in and out of the house. Small plot points come up with little or no explanation as to their purpose in the story.
Throughout the story, George converses with the "girl next door," a young girl roughly the same age, to help him think out his difficult situations. We learn right away she's someone only he can see and hear. At first it seems like a coping mechanism, but the ending reveals who she is, and it leaves a lot of unanswered questions.
Needless, to say, the movie ended on a lackluster note - unsatisfying.
If it just had better writing, it could have been a true hidden gem of a Stephen King movie. It entertained me overall until the end where, sadly, just like grandma, it just gasped its last and fizzled out.
It's laughable that the Twilight Zone episode had a darker ending than the movie, which changed the ending of King's original story altogether. Perhaps if it kept King's original ending, Mercy would have been a better film.
The Twilight Zone season 1 episode 18
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| Barret Oliver as George in the 1985 Twilight Zone episode Gramma |
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