The Rebrand definitely falls on the comedy side of the horror-comedy split here. The horror portion of the movie is blunt and predictable, from the opening all the way to the curtain call. The first time the audience sees Webb is when she is obviously killing a small animal, which correctly spotlights her as the baddie. The overall secret to what is really going beneath the surface is blatantly obvious as well. It is still creepy, but it is a level plane of creepy as opposed to a gradual descent into a pit of darkness. The strongest horror element at work is Webb’s skin-crawling performance. Webb exudes a unique style of lavender menace, like a Lesbian Vincent Price, knowing how to work it to make the nerves twist. Her stalk and slash is excellent as well, as she can stab it with the best of them. But in the end, the horror is used as a plot skeleton for the real muscle of the movie, which is the comedy. With this, director Adelaide is giving us something similar to the horror comedies of the 60s, like The Spirit Is Willing and Hillbillys In A Haunted House. Lots of fun, but still not enough to be put on the horror shelf instead of the comedy one.
While underdeveloped on the horror side, The Rebrand excels in its brilliance as a deep, dark, and delicious satire of influencer culture. The inventiveness put into the laughs by writers Adelaide and Webb will split some torsos. The specifics of the satirical targets is lung opening in how hard the guffaws will come. The toxic relationship material is radioactive gold. It will definitely bring up memories of crazy b*****s past. Helping deliver the tee-hees in a major way is the perfect dead-panning by McQueen. McQueen keeps the humor dry as dead mesquite, which makes her punchlines explode bigger, like a Lesbian John C.Reilly. Silver-Vezina handles her role as the straight woman with poise, as she gives realistic reactions to both the comedy and the horror.
“…a well aimed stab at puncturing the big influencer airbag…”
The parody world that is built is very intricate, including the wider queer true crime universe it exists in. Lots of areas worth pausing and rewinding, or whatever rewinding is called these days. The pacing is very brisk, bringing in the whole show well under 90 minutes. This is a crucial selling point for indies, as in today’s world, most of us don’t have the two to three-hour window free to watch the usual Hollywood product. I will commit to screening any movie that is short enough, especially since they get right down to business as this film does. The Rebrand is a well-aimed stab at puncturing the big influencer airbag as well as a queer good time.
"…excels in its brilliance as a deep, dark, and delicious satire of influencer culture."
