Special effects makeup artists are the unsung heroes of the genre. Our favorite horror movies wouldn’t be what they are without Rick Baker, Jennifer Aspinall, and Ve Neill. We also have this new class opening rib cages and putting characters through household appliances (looks right at Kyasia Fields, Black Spot FX, and Jessie Seitz).
So, we all assumed Wounds would be a love letter and celebration to the craft upon reading the premise. After all, it’s been a while since F/X (1986) and the opening moments of Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994) reminded my generation that these SFX magicians are the backbone of cinema. But what we got was a messy situation that left us with the wrong kind of questions.
What Caused The Wound?
Caleb Castle (Jack Kilmer) is a horror kid who lives in the studio his uncle owns. His uncle, Jefferson Price (Eric Roberts), took him in after his parents died in an accident and has given him his first job in the industry to help him get on his feet. The thing is, Caleb is really bad at SFX work. His director is unimpressed, his rival, Todd Bracken (Lambert Houston), inspires jealousy, and the girl he has feelings for, Ginny Brown (Paris Jackson), is also better than him. Instead of learning the ropes and stepping his game up, Caleb takes a different route to becoming better. After witnessing a murder, he realizes the best way to make his makeups look realistic is to get into the killing business.
Wounds feels like someone skimmed some titles on Shudder and went to work. The script written by Ryan Leeder, Joshua Courtade, and Ron Krauss (Krauss also directed the movie) seems to have a working knowledge of movies like Peeping Tom, Fade to Black, etc. However, it struggles to understand that specific genre of creep or why those movies are effective.
In the Q&A, Leeder and Courtade mentioned this was their first horror script, and that explains some of the hiccups on the page. It’s why the beats were off, and the tension never found us. It might also be why no one thought about why a movie celebrating practical effects allows CGI to have so many of its bigger moments. Unless they want us to think Caleb’s spiral is somehow partly due to the looming threat to his industry.
Let’s Rip The Band-Aid
Wounds subverts expectations in the most confusingly frustrating ways. Instead of letting the SFX team bring these images to life via practical effects, it pulls its punches and uses some really bad CGI. What Gavin B. Martin and James P. Vieira were allowed to do by hand looks really cool for this budget. It makes you wonder what they could have done with the bloodwork every time you see the computer-generated eyesores. There are many bloody moments that would’ve been more memorable if the film actually believed in the power of practical effects.
The movie also has my least favorite trope where the only Black character with a name and more than a few seconds of screen time is the abusive ex-boyfriend. Ginny talks about this man, his prison record, and even gets beat up by him a couple times. When Caleb does the obvious and goes to kill him, and we discover even casting failed the assignment, it really undoes any shreds of goodwill you may have tried to hold onto. It’s 2026, and we have to stop inviting Black actors to play outdated stereotypes in movies. Especially when the project isn’t smart (or aware) enough to understand how that reflects on everyone who let that happen.
It’s Not Good
Surprisingly, Jackson is the VIP of the movie because she tries to do something with what she is given. She’s also battling the roughest wig in her scenes, and I’m not sure who decided to do that to her. If Wounds only housed one or two shaky performances, I could look the other way. However, because the acting ranged from inconsistent to just bad, it underscores other areas where Krauss’ direction didn’t rise to the occasion. The pacing is tragic, the jokes practically plead with you to laugh, and even the final reveal isn’t the moment it could’ve been.
Wounds could have been cool, daring, or at least interesting. Instead, it’s a hollow attempt at filmmaking that thinks it’s being clever. The best example is when Ginny mentions Caleb’s uncle is why he has the job. This meta moment could have been a nod to these two actors who will be hearing about their nepo baby beginnings on this press tour. However, it’s just another thrown away idea in a pile of ideas masquerading as a film.
Wounds also tries to make us feel sorry for a white kid who buckled under the pressure of not wanting to learn his craft while falling upward. Again, there were so many smart conversations at this buffet, and yet everyone just asked for plain lettuce and started rolling the cameras.
Miss Sharai Bohannon
I am a playwright, aspiring screenwriter, podcaster, and a bunch of other words I’m not allowed to use here. I am one-half of the podcast 'Blerdy Massacre', and I host another podcast, ‘A Nightmare on Fierce Street’, as well. I have bylines at Fangoria, HorrorBuzz, Neon Splatter, NightTide Magazine, and some other cool online outlets. I can usually be found yelling about intersectional horror on some social media platform or another. I am also a proud member of CherryPicks, The Online Association of Female Film Critics, and Rotten Tomatoes. If you can’t tell, I’m really fun at parties.
