Part of the allure of horror films is watching scary and catastrophic events befall others without you yourself suffering the consequences. Keeping such in mind, writer-director Koka Singh Arora’s supernatural thriller, The Deserving, becomes a look at the evil that we inflict. The backbone of the story explores themes of guilt, redemption, the cycle of parental abuse, and duality that some people employ to compartmentalize the trauma.
Karter (Venkat Sai Gunda) is a renowned headshot photographer for male and female actors. He harbors a dark secret in that he likes to kill his clients after snapping their pictures. Karter has done this so many times he’s haunted by the ghosts of his victims and plans to hang himself in his attic. That act is stopped when a desperate client, Lucy II (Kelsey Salter), arrives, urgently needing a photo taken. Karter succumbs to the opportunity, launching himself into moments of spiritual torment with his past victims appearing and reappearing, driving him to a cyclical personal hell.
What is interesting about The Deserving is the style of storytelling that Arora uses throughout. Karter is mute, so we get long lyrical camera sequences accompanied by a lovely subtle score. The film takes place inside a home in daylight with no shadows, making it different from the traditional ghosts hiding in the dark story. The haunting opening scene demonstrates this perfectly. Hanna (Ashley Szczerbacki) becomes frustrated with Karter for not being able to speak his directions to her. The moment takes on a sensual overtone as Karter has a flashback, splitting himself in two. One being is the industrious photographer while the other leans in so close to almost taste the bewildered Hanna. The scene abruptly ends with Hanna being matter-of-factly dispatched with a knife out of frame.
“…a renowned headshot photographer…likes to kill his clients after snapping their pictures.”
Duality is a key theme, as Karter has memory flashes of a loving family that turns abusive. The most harrowing sequence is so not because of any gore effect but for its devastating implication. A young Karter is ordered by his father (Arora) to hit his mother, who has broken a plate in the kitchen. Karter’s father is a large, imposing man who brutally breaks his wife’s elbow while imploring Karter in a soft, menacing voice to “Hit your mother.” Karter refuses with a mute shake of his head but then has no choice but to comply.
The sound design is brought to the forefront with an effective music track that effectively avoids the bombastic tones of some films. Lucy II’s entrance changes the energy of the scene with the mute Karter as her dialogue is fast, often filled with friendly, flirty asides, giving him something to react to. The over-friendly happy mail lady (Jacqueline Neeley) fills her moments with old-fashioned customer-friendly dialogue that some may think is inane yet plays a part in the conclusion. As ghosts pile up, they appear as laughing mouth apparitions in chairs, still in the daylight. They crawl on the floor, and they grab at the windows. The sound design makes all this that much creepier. Lucy Hill (Simone Stadler) leads a verbal assault upon Karter’s senses. The sound is overwhelming and eerie.
The Deserving is a strong, subtle film that is not dependent on gore or jump scares. The magic is in the evil of Karter’s expressions and the emptiness of his eyes. He’s a machine devoid of the emotional contact that he so desperately craves, making him a tragic monster in the best tradition of the genre. The story is gripping, the cast goes all in, and the themes are more harrowing than any bloodletting could ever be.
"…a strong, subtle film that is not dependent on gore or jump scares."
