Glorious: Review

25th August 2022

Wes (Ryan Kwanten) is not having the best day as he’s still processing things from a bad break up. He finds himself at a rest stop and like anyone on a long journey, he decides to use the facilities. The trouble is that once Wes regains consciousness from an unknown force, he finds himself trapped in the bathroom with no way to escape. That and there’s an ominous voice telling him that he may be his only hope.

So, Wes has to talk through his problems with the voice known as Ghat (J.K. Simmons) and find a way to get out of his lonely bathroom stall. However, Ghat may have a solution that Wes may not be able to handle.

Glorious is a horror movie directed by Rebekah McKendry and written by Joshua Hull, David Ian McKendry and Todd Rigney – it’s also exclusive to Shudder. Those horror aficionados may also be quite familiar with a setting such as this as it is bound to evoke the Saw franchise for some. Although its Lovecraftian twist is quite different, if a little disjointed.

This is because Glorious is clearly a movie that was made during lockdown and with the limited cast and budget, director McKendry had to make do with what there was. Unfortunately, this means that sacrifices had to be made and it’s easy to imagine Simmons recording his lines at home only to send them over having known very little about his character.

Simmons’ performance is still as good as the script allows and there are still enough funny moments to form bonds and increase the chemistry between the main characters. However, it may not be quite enough to fully suspend the audience’s disbelief.

However, Glorious is too reminiscent of things that have come before and audiences will surely see it as a movie made while killing time until the next project. There is a rather major reveal that does turn the story on its head a little, but on closer inspection it comes across as rather two dimensional.

Pulling the rug out from under the audience’s feet for shock value rather than anything more original rarely works, and in this case it seems like it was done to wrap things up early.

Facebook

Google

Twitter

We hope you're enjoying BRWC. You should check us out on our social channels, subscribe to our newsletter, and tell your friends. BRWC is short for battleroyalewithcheese.