In The Flesh is only the second film from Connor Doyle. The writer-director follows up his Kafka adaptation, The Judgment, with an original tale of abduction and obsession. This 43-minute horror-thriller starts with Ted (Tanner Goldberg) bitching on the phone to a co-worker about a different co-worker. The office manager is heading back in late at night to get an important file the incompetent one left behind. This proves to be a mistake, as an unknown man creeps up behind Ted and renders him unconscious.
Ted soon wakes up in a sparsely decorated room, handcuffed and confused. The kidnapper, Jeremy (Chad Malen), hands the victim a script and demands he read from it. Confused, Ted complies but gives a poor performance, angering Jeremy. It turns out that the kidnapped man looks a bit like the perpetrator’s dead brother, and the script is conversations held before the sibling dies. But why does Jeremy wish to relive those final few days? More importantly, what will happen to Ted when the scripted pages run out?
“Ted soon wakes up in a sparsely decorated room, handcuffed and confused. The kidnapper, Jeremy, hands the victim a script…”
In The Flesh takes what feels like a familiar setup and makes something entirely original out of it. Jeremy’s obsessed, but that obsession stems from grief and guilt, creating some empathy… at first, anyway. Ted is unlikable and arrogant, but given the plight he finds himself in, audience members still sympathize with him. This is where Doyle’s crafty writing proves immeasurable, as that balancing act between understanding why Jeremy is doing this and hoping Ted can escape is a tightrope ably walked by the story structure while still creating well-rounded characters.
Goldberg excels in a complicated part. He’s so grating in that first scene some might wish this to be a slasher, so the character dies right off the bat. However, as things get worse and more repetitive, the actor makes Ted’s hopelessness palpable. There’s no doubt Malen’s Jeremy misses his brother, as the actor feeds into that loss believably. He also makes the man terrifying and unhinged, creating several moments of tension.
In The Flesh is a remarkable triumph. The merging of a taut screenplay, eerie direction, and dedicated leads creates an intense ride with a wild ending that is still emotionally resonant. Doyle could be the next big thing if this is anything to go by.
"…a remarkable triumph."
