‘POOKA!’ Review

I spend a lot of time in these reviews talking about the culture at which we make movies these days. To be exact, our streaming culture allows us to have a new movies instantaneously, just like the 24 hours news cycle allows to have on-demand news. The problem with these instant culture is that saturation often makes a duller product. That is to say; there are so many choices that we need to continuously make content. Unfortunately that means we don’t put a lot of effort into what we put out. It’s quantity over quality because all that matters is the number of hits something receives; not whether people like it.

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So when there are good movies, truly good ones, I always want to make sure I bring attention to them. Mostly because they are rare. Such is the case of Into the Dark: Pooka!, the latest installment in the Into the Dark series by Blumhouse on Hulu. The idea of the series is that it is 12 months of an original movie a month. Since it started in October, we are seeing the holiday movies get out of the way first.

Pooka! is the Christmas entry on the list, and I really have to say it’s the best one yet. Pooka! is the story of an out of work actor who gets a part playing a children’s doll for a extremely large amount of money. But through hallucinations and a multiple personality crisis, he begins to wonder if he is playing Pooka, or if Pooka just plays him sometimes.

Something I really like about this movie is the imagery. The lighting and music fit so nicely into the story that it makes for a great treat and one I didn’t wanted to take my eyes off of. Furthermore, the story itself starts out really simple, but as you watch you will find that the ending is not what you would expect at all. Newcoming writer Gerald Olson seems right in his element here. Casual star Nyasha Hatendi earns every bit of praise I can give him. He gives intense feeling and frankly it’s not hard to believe he’s going insane due to his convincing performance. I also believe director Nacho Vigalondo gave him a great outline to work with and it shows.

Now, the film isn’t perfect. While the frenzied style is wonderful to its premise, it can turn people off very easily. I also think that while the story makes sense in retrospect, it can be extremely confusing without a sharp eye and ear. This is one that will take multiple watchings to really take it all in.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the parallels between this film and A Christmas Carol. It’s beyond uncanny how much the “ghosts” are represented by three characters in the film. It’s so ingrained that if you look closely, you’ll notice that Pooka himself is the final ghost, revealing the problems we never knew all along. It’s a great way to update the story while still providing enough new elements to really make it something new.

Overall, Pooka! is a fantastic film. It hits all the right notes for me in terms of style and substance, and while I think it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, it definitely could be yours. Give it a chance.