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Articles: 'The Intended' struggles as scary art flick

Posted by admin on Friday, July 02, 2004 - 12:58 AM

The ties between a highbrow heart-of-darkness film such as “The Intended” and a basic slasher flick such as “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” may seem somewhat tenuous at first, but they are there.
The difference is: In a slasher flick, you usually get peeks of naked girls, gobs of blood and lots of screaming. In “The Intended,” people stop for a spot of tea at regular intervals. It’s a subtle thing, but the movies are not complete replicas. Still, the ties are undeniable. In “The Intended,” young Hamish Winslow (JJ Feild) and his somewhat older bride-to-be Sarah (Janet McTeer) travel deep into a jungle in the early 20th century. He’s to do some surveying for a family of ivory traders there. Their travels together, of course, would send proper minds a spinning. The aforementioned family of traders turns out to be just this side of the Addams family. There’s the stern matriarch Mrs. Jones (Brenda Fricker), her apparently twisted 40-ish son William (Tony Maudsley) and his overly affectionate nanny Erina (Olympia Dukakis, with some sort of Transylvanian accent), as well as your basic mad priest and an enforcer type — precisely the sort of folk you want to go spend six months in the jungle with. Soon after arriving, Hamish and his intended figure out things are kind of weird on the estate and the jungle isn’t likely to turn into the romantic adventure they’d hoped for. Their first clue is when they have to share sleeping quarters with the mad priest. Talk about ruining the moment. Eventually, a pattern is established where Hamish goes marching off into the jungle to survey things and Sarah is left behind with the nut cases, who promptly begin meeting bad ends. Then Sarah has to make that age-old choice: Embrace evil and awfulness to save the life of the one she loves and also make some cash, or not. Tough decision. How is all this like a slasher flick? Well, in slasher flicks somewhat innocent people making bad moral decisions (smoking dope, drinking booze, wearing too much makeup) usually have to pay an exorbitant price for their indulgences. The scandalous Sarah and Hamish get the same treatment in “The Intended.” And in slasher flicks, there is often a family of mad people to inflict said punishment. Same in “The Intended.” There’s also often a big, dumb scary guy in slasher flicks. Same in “The Intended.” Come to think of it, it’s downright surprising nobody in this movie is wearing a hockey mask and wielding a machete. But ultimately, “The Intended” isn’t a slasher flick since there is no set-up for a sequel. Instead, it’s a moderately creepy, man-beyond-civilization exercise that can’t decide whether it’s arty or scary, and thus ends up being neither. Still, it should entertain audience members who do find themselves stopping for a spot of tea now and again.

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