Friend, let me give you an analogy. So, you buy a car. It’s a beaut. It’s a sports car with dual double-things, has those fast doo-dads, and is dressed to impress. Alas, what you find is that under the hood is a wind-up kid’s toy and, as pretty as the beast looks, it doesn’t really get you far.
And thus it is with dear old Mormo.
The core idea for Mormo is good, and some of the execution is really good, but the genuine disinterest in basic logic steals the fire from the movie.
ITS NAME WAS MORMO is presented as a cataloging of the facts and evidence in a case we are about to learn about. The film is made up of several readings of evidence and videos that a family has made of themselves and their home. The videos follow a family of three who are happily settling into their home and life. One day, they go on an adventure to a series of ruined buildings. While there, the husband finds that several rocks have been piled upon something, and he proceeds to dig up an ancient box that has been wrapped in chains. He immediately sets about opening the box and digging through it, and the skull fragments and coins that are held within. The husband brings the box home, and immediately the daughter and their puppy begin to sense another presence in the house. The house becomes filled with dread as mysterious sounds occur, the daughter begins interacting with an unseen spirit, and things move on their own in the home. As the fear intensifies and the daughter, Mia, starts to tell the parents they’re going to die, it’s not a matter of if Mormo has something planned for the family, but what does it have planned, and can they escape before it’s too late?
As I mentioned, the core idea is pretty solid. There is also a definite dread that permeates the film. It’s reminiscent of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY in that the action tends to happen at night and in pitch darkness. The acting is hit and miss but man, the little girl who plays Mia is GREAT. She nails her role and is really given a lot to do.
And here’s the problem – there’s a really good idea here that just doesn’t make sense.
If you find a weird box buried and locked up, why fool with it?
Bonus points for opening it and finding creepy stuff inside and STILL taking it home.
Then, even as things get crazy, you refuse to remove it from your home.
EVEN as you really know that the creepy happenings are due to this box and you still won’t dispose of it.
That’s just…that’s a lot.
I have seen movies where characters act in ways that challenge credulity, but this just ignores it, and it killed the mood for me. Even as we see that the daughter is falling under the influence of something sinister, they neither leave the house nor get rid of the box. Heck, they don’t even really safeguard the girl from wandering off into danger at night.
There are just too many logic issues to let go of for me.
And that’s before you even get to the climax, which uses almost every cliche in the found footage bag – shaky night cam, filming when you should be doing something more important, splitting up, screaming into the dark, a sinister presence you hear but never see, being dragged into the darkness, AND MORE!
It’s a greatest hits of every found footage movie’s finale wrapped up to ape BLAIR WITCH PROJECT at the end.
We are never given a genuinely good hint at what is after them or why, other than dad’s a dum-dum. We are never given a feeling that the parents have half a brain in how they are dealing with things.
The wraparound framing work is great – though the idea of the police or private individuals releasing this sort of footage like this is also pushing logic a bit – but the film itself just didn’t connect with me. It was too much screaming, too much nonsense, and no WHY of it all. I appreciate that the site for the movie has a lot of info on it and that they released a book that is the wife’s journal, but it feels like it’s all a fancy paint job on a pickle.
I want to love every found footage movie I see. I take no pleasure in disliking these movies and do my darnedest not to be mean. I admire the game here, and they really nail the atmosphere, but for everything they set up, they just can’t bring that train into the station. They really needed an effective payoff, and if you look at a movie like LOVELY MOLLY you see what can be done with a brief reveal that chills the viewer but still leaves things mysterious. MORMO has a lot of promise, and some will really vibe with the minimalistic approach here, but it just didn’t work for me.
1.5 out of 5
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29451309/
Website – https://itsnamewasmormo.com/
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 