The Deserving
Written and Directed by K.S. Arora
Starring Venkat Sai Gunda, Simone Stadler and Kelsey Stalter
Runtime 1 hour and 15 minutes
Available to watch digitally

by Jill Vranken, Staff Writer

Trigger warning: mentions of suicide

“Behind every act, a consequence. Behind every sin, a reckoning.”

In The Deserving, we meet Karter Sai (Venkat Sai Gunda), a mute, seemingly shy man who nevertheless has built up a career as a photographer of some renown. One morning, a client named Hanna (Mariam Lomsadze) arrives to have some headshots taken, and while they have some communication issues, Karter manages to take some shots. When he goes to assist his client in adjusting her pose, he seems to zone out, touching her in a slightly more forward way than she had expected.

This is where we find out Karter’s terrible secret. When Hanna asks him what the hell he thinks he’s doing, he stabs her to death, revealing himself to be a serial killer. He disposes of Hanna’s body and prepares to take his own life, as his sins have become too difficult to live with. But a persistent knock at the door seemingly scuppers his plans, and after he’s managed to free himself from the noose he’s made in his attic, he goes down and opens the door to Lucy (Simone Stadler), a desperate walk-in client who begs him to take her in for some headshots.

But nothing is what it seems, and when Lucy seems to know a little bit too much detail about Karter’s difficult childhood, a psychological torment commences which will force Karter to face up to his sins and his past.

The Deserving is an impressive debut from director K.S. Anora (who also plays Karter’s father in flashbacks… and visions), who manages to work magic within the confines of a small budget and a single location. He is helped by his star, Venkat Sai Gunda, who initially approached him with the idea of making a film with very specific limitations (a mute main character, a single location) and who manages to convey Karter’s deteriorating state of mind through sign language (there are some in-screen subtitles to assist the viewer) and facial expressions alone.

On a storytelling level, if we look beyond the plot the thing that, for me, helps us to understand Karter’s mindset the most, is the music. An almost mournful piano score, punctured by sharper more traditional horror stings, puts us into Karter’s head. Here is a man haunted by himself, by a childhood dominated by an abusive father, and an adulthood twisted into murder. We are never made to feel sorry for him, but we do understand where he comes from.

The film also doesn’t go where you think it will go on the basis of its premise, and to reveal the twist would be to do it a disservice. All I will say is that things take a decided turn for the supernatural, and watching Karter be haunted by the physical manifestations of the ghosts of his victims (those manifestations are very well designed, and used sparingly, by which I mean they’re really freaking scary) is very effective. All in all, despite the obvious limitations of the small budget and the single location, The Deserving manages to be a short, sharp shock of a horror film, and one that I highly recommend you seek out and give a chance.