Review: The Voices (2014)

“Friday I had a pretty cushy gig. Had lots of friends, I was the office hottie… now I’m a severed head in a fridge. Sucks to be me, Jerry.”
– Fiona

SYNOPSIS: A likable guy pursues his office crush with the help of his evil talking pets, but things turn sinister when she stands him up for a date. – via IMDB

It’s amazing. Things went from this:

to this pretty rapidly, and it was awesome!

Honestly, I watched The Voices because I read a bit about it on Ryan’s site (review here), and also because I needed to do research. Ryan Reynold research for science, of course. Needless to say, he was well worth the watch. It also turned out that The Voices is a better watch than you would actually initially give it credit for (not just a comedy).

I was incredibly impressed by the beautiful albeit slightly boring world that Jerry has. Crappy job, maybe, but he goes home to a pretty neat little apartment and his pets, his loyal and caring dog Bosco who absolutely loves him and Mister Whiskers, who is so freaking insane you can only laugh. He is grumpy and angry and nasty to boot, but Jerry loves him anyway. It soon becomes evident that Jerry’s mind is not as stable as it should be. You pity him because of how he is treated by Fiona, though you can sort of understand why he would have difficulty picking a woman like that up. His looks have nothing to do with it, but his social skills are lacking in the absolute extreme.

Where the movie really won me over, really got me on board, was when you peeled back the layer and saw the world as it really is, not the cushy little version that Jerry has. It is absolutely disgusting. His home is nasty and a wreck, his mind is permanently making things prettier than they are, and it seems that he will get away with everything because he has himself so sheltered and is such a loner. Also goes to show how disinterested people are, otherwise someone would have surely know that something was up with him!

I really liked the way that the storytelling was done. You get to see how Jerry understands and feels about it all, as well as the harsh reality. Nothing is given up immediately, but you are given the information you need in increments, so your view on Jerry slowly but surely deteriorates and changes, too. The humour in here is good, though dark, but I am a fan of that. The movie seamlessly crosses between hilarity and a more serious, disturbing side, which is something movies like this struggle to do most times.

The performances were pretty on the ball all round, too, and the characters were entertaining and not overly shallow, though none were as fleshed out as Jerry. I loved how this movie gets you thinking after you scratch the surface, to really look into the mind of a psychopath – this was an element that worked wonders here. The Voices did have issues in places, undeniably, but overall is certainly worth the watch if you are looking for a horror/thriller comedy and something that is a little different.