I Will Never Leave You Alone
Written and Directed DW Medoff
Starring Kenneth Trujillo, Katerina Eichenberger, Christopher Genovese
Runtime: 95 minutes
Available digitally October 18

by Kimberly L., Staff Writer

I Will Never Leave You Alone tackles grave matters with gorgeous cinematography and a standout performance from lead Kenneth Trujillo as non-verbal widower Richard Marwood. The film corners viewers into the shadows of grief, guilt, addiction, and hopelessness, but departs when we could have been left there. What starts out as a compelling, mostly psychological thriller, gets lost in unexpectedly unscary creature design and horror camp in the third act.

I Will Never Leave You Alone performs atmospherically—the lighting is smooth and dim and plays with a monochromatic setting caked in dread. Cinematographer Blake Studwell has an opportunistic eye for creative and gut-wrenchingly deep and dark camera angles. Films rarely manage to be this shadowy without compromising a degree of visibility that can leave too much to the imagination.

As I usually do, I went into the film blind and crossed my fingers for a compelling story. The plot visits familiar places but manages to carve out its own thing. Richard has been recently released from prison after half a decade doing time for the bizarre deaths that happened in his former household. With no money and no relatives, he is handed off to a work release program offering a few thousand dollars in exchange for a six-day commitment. The particular job requires him to stay in an abandoned house for six days in order as a way to cleanse the house a curse.  . If you were a mischievous kid who snuck into abandoned homes for a thrill, you will immediately recognize Richard’s setting as somewhere you immediately regretted entering.

One of the more innovative themes in the story not rooted in Richard’s own past focuses on Kimberly Maxwell’s character, known only as “The Realtor”. Using recently released prisoners as controls, she seeks to flip cursed or otherwise supernaturally inhabited and hard-to-sell properties. This ambitious concept warrants its own film without Richard’s personal plight and the direction loses focus with two separate and competing stories.

A history of witchcraft and human sacrifice plague the property Richard is assigned and in this fresh but continued confinement, Richard begins to lose his bond to reality. Frequent flashback sequences speak to Richard’s life before prison where viewers learn he was not always mute. An ominous scar across his throat becomes more prominent at the return from each flashback. The unfolding of the main character’s backstory is done so well, it’s a heavy disservice how irrelevant this delicate work becomes to the film’s finale.

Richard is so immersed in his newfound alone time with his thoughts that he barely notices the evil emerging from the guts of the house. A muddy tale of which witches are real and which are invented begins to spiral from themes of postpartum depression, hysteria, and domestic turmoil. 

By the end of the film, I was so removed from the pressing concern I had for Richard’s mental state during the first sixty minutes, that it felt like watching the last act to an entirely different film. Trujillo presents a strong and deeply passionate performance as a father who has lost everything to addiction and untreated psychosis. Even as a non-verbal character shrouded in desolate stoicism, there is an undeniable air of shame and pain that anyone with a history of addiction or loss would recognize and empathize with. 

Movies about folklore, witchcraft, and the line between feminine hysteria and possession fascinate me. If a synopsis refers to any crones, psychotic women, or intrusive evil, I am immediately in, and with some further editing, this film tells one of the darkest love stories in recent cinema.  The slow reveal of the deaths he stood accused of that lead him to prison are as shocking as they were intended to be. The viscera they choose to show and not show is so mismatched that audiences will question if this was a budget choice or a direct provocation to get people talking. Unfortunately, the mismanaged budget question returns with the aforementioned evil within the walls revealed later in the film. In a project where fear was built so intricately throughout the first half, I wonder where it got lost—like the squealing hiss of deflating balloons that wanted to go out with a pop.