The Black String (2018)

(On Cable TV, July 2021) One of the fundamental differences between a genre fan and someone more sympathetic to so-called mainstream filmmaking is that the genre fan will insist on the coherence of the genre elements above any realistic interpretation. This makes The Black String particularly frustrating to take in, especially as the film revels in the liminal region between fantasy and twisted psychology. Here, Frankie Muniz plays a man with significant issues making a meager and lonely living as a liquor store clerk. An atypical one-night stand proves far more troublesome when he realizes he’s been possessed, but these fantastic developments come with progressively more troubling revelations about his mental health history. Clearly trying to play both sides by alternating between paranormal and psychological explanations, The Black String eventually tries to have its cake and eat it as well: The conclusion ends up pointing in contradictory directions, perhaps in an attempt to blow viewers’ minds but only succeeding in exasperating everyone. To be fair, writer-director Brian Hanson scores a few hits along the way — Muniz is pretty good, the images are often striking and the film does better than expected whenever it leans into the supernatural facet of its narrative. There’s a point where the film does feel as if it’s heading something interesting. Alas, it does not stick the landing — the very dark conclusion doesn’t help make viewers any better about the lack of commitment to an explanation or another. The Black String does meet one of the fundamental criteria for a “psychological thriller,” though — as in “while no physically impossible, nothing like this has ever or will ever happen.”