As co-writers/co-directors Patrycja Kepa and Acoryé White’s The Grove began, I thought it was in for the Brightburn version of Universal Soldier. What the picture turned out to be was something more dynamic and moving, like a dark superhero movie crossbred with Frankenstein.
White also plays the lead, Terrance “T.J.” Johnson, a former member of Black Ops who harbors a secret he picked up during wartime from his fiancée Alice (Psalms). But with advice from his Doctor (Haley Sims) along with prescribed medication, TJ and Alice head for a secluded getaway to spend some time alone. Alone, except for their friends Chris (Carl Anthony Payne II) and Imani (Guxci), and a Gen-Z group comprising Mai (Jolena Wu), Kai (Alestair Shu), Victor (Jesus Venegas), Sophie (Anuschka van Lent), and Brock (Graham Edmonds). They are the gang Imani needs to make it feel more like a party. Their serenity ruined, TJ and Alice try to make the best of the situation. Except TJ is now far from his medication and is slowly transforming into a dangerous pawn at the center of a dangerous game.
With time ticking away and tempers and tensions tripping along a knife’s edge, the group of unexpected revelers soon find themselves in awkward and aggressive situations as boundaries are crossed and uncomfortable relationship issues service. All the while, the mysterious serum courses through TJ’s veins, supercharged now by the alcohol he was warned not to drink, but has unwittingly consumed. We’ve all seen it before. Scientists standing on the shoulders of ancient research, looking to play God. Spending so much time thinking about what they could do, rather than what they should do. Thus, TJ, now at the mercy of the evil super-soldier serum, doesn’t understand the extent of his capabilities, nor is he aware of the power that seeks to weaponize his newfound supremacy.
Screenshot
“The mysterious serum courses through TJ’s veins, supercharged now by the alcohol he was warned not to drink.”
It’s at this point that the story takes on shades of a Shyamalan movie, as it takes an already intriguing premise and pulls it into a real-world scenario, which makes you wish, like with Shyamalan’s work, that the filmmakers had left out certain information, as not knowing would have added another level of trickery. As TJ fights against urges beyond mortal conception, the other members of the getaway gang battle themselves and frivolous social agendas coupled with drug-fueled posing until the secret that now hunts them is out, and they unleash The Grove.
With no way left to cover up her secret experiments and agenda, Haley Sims’ unscrupulous Dr. Jane deploys her insurance policy, a cybernetically enhanced assassin, sent to contain the situation, eliminate any witnesses, and destroy all evidence. TJ must fight with everything he is and all that he is becoming in order to bring down the foreboding alliance that created him.
The Grove is a smart, edgy thriller that has the legs to be the spearhead of an interesting franchise that is in some ways similar to Todd McFarlane’s Spawn. The hero here, much like the comic icon, is condemned to the search for justice on a road marked by loneliness and regret, for a decision made with the best of intentions. But the road to Hell, they say, is paved with good intentions, and The Grove explores those themes together with an inventive plot and an energetic filmmaker combining to deliver a genre-bender you won’t be able to ignore.
"…a dark superhero movie crossbred with Frankenstein."
