Writer: Owen Egerton (Screenplay)
Starring: Danielle Pineda, Janeane Garofalo, Elle LaMont, Austin Amelio, Dylan Gage, Lee Eddy, Miles Emmons
Plot: Fifteen years after stabbing a classmate to conjure an imaginary phantom known as Mercy Black, Marina Hess is coming home. She’s being released from psychiatric care to live with her sister and young nephew. But in the years since her crime, the myth of Mercy Black has gone viral inspiring internet rumors, stories, and even copycat crimes. Marina is haunted by what she has done and the phantom she imagined. Though she would rather leave the past buried, her nephew becomes increasingly obsessed with Mercy Black. To save him, Marina must face her past and uncover the truth behind Mercy Black. What she discovers is a very real and very deadly horror that will stop at nothing to claim her and her nephew.
Runtime: 1 Hour 28 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Basic Horror
Story: Mercy Black starts as Marina (Pineda) is being released from psychiatric care home after 15-years because of her childhood incident, Dr Ward (Garofalo) has been working with her for years now believing she is ready to leave. Marina’s sister Alice (LaMont) takes her in as she starts to put her life back on track, still dealing with the nightmares of Mercy Black.
Marina is still living through the memories of what happened, only to learn that her story become an internet story, which bought out copycat killers and other stories of people bringing her to life, Marina must face these stories and put the urban legend to bed.
Thoughts on Mercy Black
Characters – Marina is just being released from a psychiatric care home, 15-years after committing a terrible action for the ghostly figure of Mercy Black, she has spent years trying to recover from her experience, once she is released, it doesn’t take long for her past to come back and haunt her and her nephew, Marina must remember her past before it is too late, to understand just what her promise was for Mercy. Dr Ward has been treating Marina and is happy to let her leave the care home to re-enter the world. Alice is the sister of Marina who is letting her sister live with her family, she doesn’t want anyone to know about the past, especially her son. Bryce is the son of Alice, he quickly becomes fascinated with the Mercy Black story and soon believes he is seeing her.
Performances – Daniella Pineda in the leading role is solid enough, the problem with most of performances, comes from the characters who are not written to be that interesting. Janeane Garofalo does feel wasted in her role which felt like it was meant to be a bigger part of the film.
Story – The story follows a young woman that is released from a psychiatric home after committing a crime as a child which saw her believe she was helping an evil spirit take away the pain in her life, once released her nephew starts following the same path she must figure out how to stop the legend spreading. We have seen the idea of an urban legend spread like wildfire before it just becomes the belief that it is real. We get to follow through the normally interesting investigating the idea behind hauntings going on just doesn’t become the interesting factor it should be. We also end up going down one of the most predictable paths we have seen in horror stories.
Horror/Mystery – The horror in this film comes from the idea that an urban legend could be true, the mysterious figure known as Mercy Black is still killing people while waiting for her promise to be kept. The mystery adds into the horror as to whether it could be a true story or not.
Settings – The film is set mostly in the remote house outside of a town, which we never seem to visit, the woodland area where the events of the story happened.
Special Effects – When it comes to the effects, we have basic and not the most effective ones here.
Scene of the Movie – The first visit.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Caught in the middle of two ideas to often.
Final Thoughts – This is a safe by the book horror, it doesn’t have too many scares, the ones we get you can see coming a mile away along with certain directions the story goes.
Overall: By the book horror.