Peter’s so called ‘cruel’ antics are hidden behind off screen plots and backstory; his only visual cruelty is the dead animals nailed to the trees and the aftermath of violence against people. The reality of Peter’s character is that he’s a spoilt psychopath protected by mummy, and the disgruntled child servant did Italy a favour before he turned into a notorious serial killer – which is a shame, because that would have made for a better film.
Instead, we get the story of Archaeologist, Norman, and his deaf, teenage daughter Liz. Norman’s work takes him to Italy where he finds the makeshift gravestone of ‘Cruel Peter’; meanwhile, Liz uses a Bishop’s Sphere to try to communicate with her mother, who died in an accident years prior that also left Liz deaf; of course, instead of her actual mother, she contacts the wandering spirit of Peter’s mother who is still searching for her sons body.
Just because it’s not a Ouija board, doesn’t mean it doesn’t attract evil!
Both Norman and Liz begin to see strange things, specifically a housemaid with her throat slit, and then there’s the sudden appearance of neighbour, Harriet, who is clearly the manifestation of Peter’s mother.
Peter possesses Liz and is lead away to the old family house by Harriet, who, back in her day, was a witch; she had slit the housemaid’s throat to contact Peter when he disappeared.
Norman learns, through his assistant Bianca, that Peter had slit his own father’s throat and his mother covered it up as suicide. Bianca convinces Norman to use the Sphere to contact the child servant of the family, and although he’s fully aware of what a Bishop’s Sphere is, he has no clue of the mechanics – yet still manages to summon the spirit he needed.
Mamaaa, I just killed my daaaad
The child servant shows Norman that he’d had a change of heart – he was going back to Peter to release him when the earthquake hit and killed him, not too far from Peter’s own grave. Bianca’s aunt, the cliche old woman who knows everything, tells them they need to exorcise the gravesite in order to save Liz.
There’s some weird event at the grave while Bianca exorcises the grave; I’m not sure of they were skeletons or zombies, or skeleton zombies, but it’s short lived. The pair then go to the old home of Peter and find Liz; thinking the whole thing is over, they stay in Italy.
It’s never over though, is it? Somehow, Peter still resides in Liz and comes back to her two months later.
To be continued? I hope not.
Cruel Peter is a dull film with a few cheap jump scares, the only thing I can applaud is the alternative use of an alternative to a Ouija board – if only they’d delved deeper into its lore a little more, or into Peter’s history; was he born evil through Harriet’s occult ways? Was he made evil by his upbringing? Harriet’s character is under used, she had the potential to be something truly horrifying and they let her do very little.
On the morning of a family funeral, Steven Graham tries to wrangle his two teenagers; eldest son, Peter, and eccentric daughter, Charlie. Steven scolds Charlie for sleeping in the treehouse because it was so cold, while mother, Annie, is already in the car waiting for everyone.
At the funeral, Annie reads the eulogy for her mother Ellen; she explains that they had a strained relationship due to Ellen’s extremely private life. During the service, Charlies draws in her little book, or eats chocolate that has to be nut free.
Important necklace is important
Annie talks to Charlie before bed. Charlie complains that Ellen always wanted her to be a boy, and Annie brushes it off by saying she grew up as a tomboy herself and Ellen just wanted to recreate those days through Charlie.
A week after the funeral, Annie goes through her mother’s things to find a book on Spiritualism, with a note inside from Ellen apologising to Annie; she then thinks she sees Ellen in her workshop. At school, a pigeon hits the window of Charlie’s classroom; she steals a pair of scissors from the teacher’s desk and casually cuts the head off the pigeon after class, pocketing it to take home.
Charlie is the creepiest part of this film
Steven receives a phone call from the cemetery to inform him that Ellen’s grave has been desecrated; Steven lies to Annie and says it was about a payment issue, and Annie tells him she’s going to see a film.
Annie secretly attends a group meeting for the bereaved; she’s encouraged to share her feelings and goes into a long rant about her Mother, their family history of mental health issues – which lead to the deaths of her Father and older brother – and period of ‘no contact’ between her and Ellen after Peter was born, but Ellen was a key role in raising Charlie.
Peter is invited to a party; he lies to Annie and says it’s a school event, who calls him out and asks if he’s going to be drinking – he denies the accusation, so Annie suggests taking Charlie while Peter tells her she’s unlikely to want to go. To prove a point, Annie finds Charlie in the garden, who is staring at an apparition of Ellen in a ring of fire (then that song got stuck in my head), and forces Charlie to go to the party with her brother.
At the party, Peter tries to impress a girl he likes with a bag of weed; he tells Charlie to have a piece of cake being handed out and leaves her alone to smoke. Charlie begins to go into anaphylaxis, telling Peter it’s getting harder to breathe; he rushes her to the car and speeds towards the hospital while his sister writhes around in the back, she hangs out of the window for air and Peter swerves to avoid a dead deer in the road. Charlie’s head strikes a telephone post.
Pete’s going to need a heap of therapy that he won’t actually get
Peter slowly drives home and leaves the body for his Mother to find. The grief causes further tension between Mother and son. Peter is haunted by Charlie’s presence in the house.
Annie attempts another meeting, but changes her mind without even leaving her car; she’s stopped by Joan, who offers her support as she lost her son and grandson in an accident herself; Annie eventually takes her up on this, going to her apartment and recalling the time, during a sleepwalking event, that she’d covered herself and her children in paint thinner and woke with a lit match in her hand – which started the tension between her and Peter.
Annie clearly deals with her trauma through her miniatures; dotted around her workshop, amongst her commissions, are several pieces of her and her mother in various points in her life – her latest piece is Charlie’s accident. Steven berrates Annie for the model, asking her what Peter would think if he saw it – she brushes it off as artistic release. Later, at dinner, Annie accuses Peter of being selfish and not apologising for what happened to his sister; Peter shoots back that Charlie didn’t want to go anyway – that Annie forced her and therefore her fault, too.
I think a qualified therapist would say this is NOT HEALTHY
Sometime later, Annie bumps into Joan again. Joan is ecstatic to share that she met someone who taught her to perform a seance to speak to her grandson; Annie is skeptical at first, but goes back to Joan’s home to see it for herself. Shaken after what she sees, Joan gives her the instructions to perform it herself and encourages her to do the same while the family is home.
That night, while trying to sleep, Annie follows a trail of ants to Peter’s room; the ants cover his face and Annie screams, Peter asks her what the problem is – completely fine – and pressures her to revealing why she hated him so much; she admits that she never wanted him in the first place while covered in paint thinner once again. Annie wakes from the dream and decides to conjure Charlie; she wakes Steven and Peter to force them to try the seance with her. Things begin to break and fly around, and Annie is possessed by Charlie until Steven throws water over her.
Peter is haunted by Charlie at school. He excuses himself to the toilet and phones his Father; Steven then phones Annie, they argue and she states that she’s not sleepwalking again – not that he accused her of it in the first place; however there is a miniature of Peter missing his head. That night, Peter sees Charlie in the corner of his room and her head rolls off her body that turns into a ball; he then feels someone trying to pull his head off and accuses Annie when she comes into his room. Annie suspects that Charlie’s spirit is evil and tries to burn her sketch book in the fireplace, but burning it causes her sleeve to catch fire, too, until she puts the fire out.
Annie heads to Joan’s, but she isn’t home, and she suddenly recognises the fancy welcome mat at the door; she rushes home to the boxes of her Mother’s things, discovering other mats and a photo album with pictures of Ellen and Joan – the pair was in some kind of cult and Ellen was their leader, intending to use her own family to summon Paimon: the 8th King of Hell. Annie goes into the attic, finding the decapitated body of her mother and the symbol from her necklace painted on the wall in blood.
At school, Peter is briefly possessed and slams his nose on his desk, breaking it; Steven takes him home and puts him to bed, Annie then tells him everything she’s discovered and begs him to check the attic; she then begs him to throw Charlie’s book into the fireplace – expecting to die – and Steven accuses her of digging up her own Mother’s grave. Annie throws the book into the fire herself and Steven goes up in flames. Annie is then possessed.
I didn’t know William DeFoe was in this!
Peter wakes and finds his Father’s corpse, along with some naked people hiding in the dark corners; Annie chases him into the attic which is decorated in occult material. A possessed Annie decapitates herself and Peter jumps out of the window; Charlie’s soul enters his body and follows the levitating Annie into the treehouse where the other cult members are waiting. Joan crowns Charlie as Paimon, and congratulates him on escaping his female vessel and finding a male one to rule over them.
I have a personal theory that Ellen intended Peter to be the vessel of Paimon in the first place, but Annie’s ‘no contact’ for years ruined those plans until Charlie came along and she was allowed back into the family; but that’s just my theory!
The movie starts slow, and I’m pretty sure the creep factor would have been ramped up if Charlie had lived – but that obviously wasn’t the point of the film! There are some great transitioning scenes and effects; the acting is on point and Grandma being Queen of the cult was a great twist!
4/5: Later scenes make up for the slow progression, but still not enough spook factor to push it to full marks.
GONGPO REVIEW 