Mercy (2014 film)
Summary
"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." A single mom and her two boys help take care of their grandmother with mystical powers.
Details
- Release Date: 2014
- Country/Language: US, English
- Genres/Technical: Horror, Thriller
- Setting: Modern West Virginia, could work in any earlier decade in small-town USA
- Runtime: 1 hr 19 min
- Starring: Frances O'Connor, Shirley Knight, Chandler Riggs
- Director: Peter Cornwell
- Writer: Stephen King (story), Matt Greenberg (screenplay)
- Producer/Production Co: Blumhouse Productions, Wonderland Sound and Vision
- View Trailer: (link)
- IMDB: (link)
Ratings
MPAA Ratings
- Rated: R (Violence, Profanity, Adult Content)
Tentacle Ratings
A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:
- SS___ (Two Tentacles: Barely Lovecraftian; could be a very loose adaptation)
Based on Stephen King's "Lovecraftian" short story, "Gramma", about a boy left alone to care for his terrifying, invalid grandmother, who keeps the Necronomicon hidden beneath the floor of her bedroom.
Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.
Reviews
Review Links:
- Ryne Barber at The Moon is a Dead World (6/10) (link)
- Nat Brehmer at Wicked Horror (6/10) (link)
- Greg Caggiano at Reel to Real (7.5/10 Stars) (link)
- Daniel Klemens at HorrorNewsdotnet (2.5/5) (link)
- Richard Schieb at The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review (2.5/5 Stars) (link)
- James Toomey at Awful Horror Movies (5.5) (link)
Synopsis
Spoiler Section (Highlight to Read)
Two brothers move into their dying grandmother's house and experience disturbing phenomena that they believe to be the work of an ancient, evil witch. In 1960s West Virginia, the grandmother, after a series of miscarriages, makes a deal with something up in the mountains - "Hastur" - in exchange for children, and receives a mysterious tome dug up from the earth and triplets shortly afterward; the family is struck afterward by a series of tragedies - bizarre suicides, gruesome accidents, famine, madness, death - with the grandmother's best parts traded over time to get what she wants. Part of the bargain involves a sacrifice of the protagonist, the youngest grandson.
Notes
Comments, Trivia, Dedication
Associated Mythos Elements
- TO DO
- fiction: Stephen King's "Gramma (fiction)"
- film: "Gramma (1986 short)"
- tome: Weeping Book (a middle-ages tome written in an ink that becomes visible only when contacted by human tears, which grants the thing most desired when prayed upon)
- race: Human Cultists
- race: "Death Wolf" (seeks out wicked people, eats them, and drags them to hell)
- race: Fetch
- deity: Hastur (name-dropped)
