Proxy (I) (2013) User Reviews

Solid acting, good performances, added to my weird list.

[individual-297-994063 · 6/10 · 23 April 2014]

If you're looking for a movie that gives you that feeling like you're not sure what you have been apart of, then take a moment to view here. As you sit alone in the dark talking aloud to the TV, you'll be asking yourself questions like: It's a horror? Oh, is it mystery? Maybe it's a psycho killer type thing? Or is it just weird? The ending, It couldn't of ended any other way! I liked it.

The main character really pulled me into the story. She is alone and pregnant, we don't know why. An introvert loner who's sadness seems obvious for all to see. When the first shocking seen hits you, it hits you twice as hard as you know this will send her down some weird pit of crazy despair that only someone on the edge can feel.

Then as the next few scenes of the movie unfold, you can sense that something else is happening and That's when I sat up as I wasn't sure what is happening or what will happen next. As you know, there are way too many movies where you know what happens next!

You have to like unconventional movies or you won't enjoy this strange little trip into weirdness.

Hitchcockian thriller derails

[moviefansme · 5/10 · 19 February 2014]

Nothing is as it seems in this bizarre, Hitchcockian mystery thriller. Unfortunately, it doesn't all add up, either. Don't wait for an ending that wraps it all up--there isn't any, which it too bad for a film that is very well made and acted. The story starts with a bang, a brutal and senseless assault that occurs before the opening credits. And then it builds ... slowly ... ever so slowly--at a pace some may find atmospheric but others will consider tedious. As the story finally progresses, it gradually reveals that what seems to be going on isn't what's really going on, as each layer of the story hits yet another twist, leading to yet another layer. Who or what is this story about? Who's the protagonist? Who's the antagonist? It keeps the audience off balance. Somewhere in the middle was the mother of all continuity errors, where a character was wearing a bloody shirt inside the house, then a clean version of the same shirt outside the house, then the bloody version again when he went back into the house. Was the outside an extra scene that was shot later and then inserted into the film? Or was this inconsistency purposely part of the story to convey that what obviously is happening isn't really happening after all? Several things that character does never add up and are never explained. For a horror movie, there's little gore, most violence is implied or portrayed indirectly, and the blood is downright artistic. The focus is on the story. The film is very well made, it's just too bad that the story doesn't make more sense.

Gets it right occasionally, but rarely

[Seth_Rogue_One · 5/10 · 28 July 2016]

Some scenes are really well-crafted (the extreme slow motion scenes in particular are gorgeous) so there is definitely some talent behind the camera.

But, and that's a big but, the pace is at a snails speed at times and you really get the itchy trigger finger for the fast-forward remote button a lot.

I think had it been edited down to 90 minutes it could have been a fairly effective movie over all but as it is you really need to have a lot of patience with it, it's 2 hours long but it feels even longer.

And the second hour of the movie doesn't quite come together as well as I'm sure they intended, which is a shame because it does have a pretty cool plot which reminded me a bit of French horrors more so than American.

So yeah overall a strong 4 or a weak 5 from me.

Uneven but sometimes compelling

[drownsoda90 · 6/10 · 11 April 2014]

"Proxy" gets off to a really gruesome start— a very pregnant Esther Woodhouse (Alexia Rasmussen) is knocked out in an alleyway and has her stomach beaten with a brick. Esther loses the baby, and afterward seems to lose her sanity— or did she ever really have any to begin with?

I had the privilege of attending a midnight screening of "Proxy" at the Portland International Film Festival with the director in attendance. The film, as others have mentioned quite often, gets off to a really intriguing start. As Esther's character begins to unravel before our eyes, we begin to see that she's a bit more than a lonely pregnant woman. The same goes for Melanie (Alexa Havens), a friend whom she meets at a support group for women who have lost children.

What begins as a psychological horror character study on these two women shifts gears about halfway through the film, and in doing so loses some of the intrigue that permeated the first half (largely due to Alexia Rasumussen's stellar performance as the awkward and perhaps sociopathic Esther). It begins to delve into the territory of social satire on the nature of sympathy and publicity, which is appropriate to the film's build-up to that point, but also leaves the rest of it to play out somewhat awkwardly in comparison. References to Hitchcock are well-deserved, as the film does have a Hitchcockian bent to it, though it lacks the cohesion of his films and at times is somewhat choppy, and at others, incomprehensibly disjointed.

Overall, I had mixed feelings toward this film. I enjoyed the first half, but the shift the film makes midway through almost derails the entire thing. Beautifully shot no less, and the performances are truly great from relatively unknown actors. It's at times gruesome, mostly utterly mind boggling, but it's worth a watch, or maybe two. I feel like it demands a second viewing to try and tease out all of the intricacies at its core. 6/10.

A Waste Of Time & Money!

[CinemaClown · 24 October 2015]

Opening with a shocking sequence, treading an interesting path during the first act, taking an unexpected turn in the middle, dragging from that point onwards and finally drowning in its own mess by the time it nears its conclusion, Proxy may seem like a violent, unflinching, gore-filled horror but in actuality is a dull & bloated psychological horror filled with wooden characters.

The story of Proxy follows two women. First is Esther, a pregnant young lady who loses her child after being brutally attacked by an unidentified person while on her way home. Her road to recovery begins when she joins a support group where she meets & befriends Melanie, who claims that her husband & child died in a road accident. Things head for worse when Esther discovers Melanie's secret.

Co-written, co-produced & directed by Zach Parker, Proxy opens on such a promising note that watching it fall flat after a while was all the more frustrating. The downslide starts when the director decides to shift the focus from one character to another and once that happens, everything after it feels absurd & mundane. Parker also fails to provide a gripping plot or a set of characters worth caring for, and it runs way too long.

There isn't much to talk about its technical aspects for it didn't improve the experience by any means. There are a numerous poor decisions made here as far as camera-work, editing or background score goes. A pivotal scene is turned into an off-putting moment by its slow- mo photography that overstays its welcome & looks unintentionally funny. Editing is virtually absent in the second half. And the background score fails to blend with the narrative.

On an overall scale, Proxy is a highly mediocre horror film that falls utterly short of whatever it was aspiring to be, features weak plotting & questionable character motives, and doesn't even revel in extremity for the R-rated elements are heavily toned down after the gruesome opening act. Neither the cast nor their input stand out here although the actress who plays Esther Woodhouse was slowly getting the hang of her character and I'd have loved to see more of that instead of what Proxy had in store for me. An absolute waste of time!

Think twice about joining a support group...

[lojitsu · 6/10 · 24 July 2018]

A-Z Horror Movie of the Day..."Proxy" (NR - 2013 - US)

Sub-Genre: Psycho/Disturb My Score: 6.3

Cast=4 Acting=8 Plot=5 Ending=6 Story=8 Scare=3 Jump=4 F/X=7 Psycho=9 Twist=9

The life of three parents who have all shared the loss of a child. Motives are not what they seem and sanity is in short supply in this thriller.

This movie will make me think twice about joining a support group! What starts with one horrific incident turns into many other horrific incidents. It was like a game of "Psycho Wars"; where only the most deranged may live on for a book signing and a TV movie. This is not scary, but disturbing as hell! This is one to have you shaking your head afterward. Is it weird that I no longer think therapy is a good idea? I didn't think so either.

Terrible

[jenny_emma_bruce · 1/10 · 11 January 2016]

This film is definitely not for me, Im barely managing to get to the end of it and I'm only watching the end of it cause I want to know what happens. To me this film is really bad there is hardly any story to it and it seems to just be about a whole load of psycho people doing psycho things like getting there girlfriend to attack them and kill there unborn child. The characters in this film are seriously messed up. I like my horror movies but this is one of those horror movies that makes you bored out of your mind. I don't know what else to say thats how terrible and boring it was. The only good thing about it is that the acting in it is good but apart from that I am bored out of my mind. I don't recommend this film to anyone.

Pretty good. Almost really good.

[rollwithit-35445 · 7/10 · 20 September 2015]

Spoilers included here. Im Reviewing another Indiana movie. (Im from Indiana and think its cool that some Indie movies are being made here and getting exposure) This was great to be a low budget Indie. I'd love to know the budget on this. Watched this on netflix a few months ago. Good story. Very slow pacing but that was intentional I believe. Definitely a nod to "Psycho" with the Hitchcock feel, the main character being killed in the middle of the movie. And in the shower no less. Well bathtub. That scene was crazy and almost comical. But really good. If that makes sense. Second half of the movie did drag a bit and got less plausible as it went along. I really didn't buy the lesbian lover character at all.

I think as a viewer I'm supposed to think "wow these are some messed up twisted people" and they were. Overall, pretty decent. Not a cookie cutter movie at all. Certainly worth a watch. There's FAR worse on Netflix.

What ???!!!

[lrtb-34348 · 3/10 · 3 June 2016]

Let's start by warning everyone that if you are not up for a weird, hardcore trip, not to see this movie. Actually, I would have said, if you have something better to watch, don't spend time with this movie.

The movie itself is not bad, the acting is Excellent, the atmosphere is very good, but, there are lot of things that, I think, could have been much better if they had an explanation. Lot of things that happened in this movie, they don't really makes sense, apart from the shocking-factor. Yes, as I said, the acting is very good, and there are some images, scenes, very ambitious and excellent. But, if this movie would have had some kind of context, I think, it could have been much better.

As I said, the movie is not bad, the only thing, I don't see anything else here than the intention to shock the viewer, and to try to make something intelligent, from a movie that could have been better with a closed ending, and some explanation.

I just want my 2 hours back !!!

More of dark Drama then horror with some blood!

[atinder · 6/10 · 27 April 2014]

This movie nasty opening, with lady who heavy pregnant and his mugged by some person in hooded, who really wanted her unborn baby dead.

Then Esther wakes up in the hospital and find out her unborn baby is dead, you might think you feel sorry for,

As the moves goes learn, ( all the women in this movie are Messed up) As learn, start of the movie, was not want seemed.

First hour is about Esther , who first feel sorry for until the curve and then she become friends with another women in group Melanie

So Esther gets closer to her but is hurt by her lies, so she does something really unforgivable.

There some slow parts in the movie, about hour into, I love the slow motion scene, .

Melanie take centre stage of the next hour and lead to ending moment, which may surprise people.

I enjoyed, until very last scene a abrupt ending

However this really a horror movie, it felt more like very dark drama , with some blood moments here and there.

6/7 out of 10

Horror? No way. Thriller? A bit, yes. Drama? Almost Completely

[DuskShadow · 4/10 · 14 September 2019]

This film...I really dont get what the purpose was, but really every character in this was a type of person that I am just not fond of at all. Everyone not only had personal problems, but they ended up taking them out on others in such lame and wicked ways. There was nothing redeeming about this film, or worthwhile in terms of lessons learned. Skip at all cost, because even though some of it was so poorly done that my friend and I were laughing at times, at other times we were just shaking our heads at the absurdity and pitifulness of the film. AVOID 4/10

Overlooked and Underrated.

[nqsferatuslair · 8/10 · 11 August 2014]

This review contains NO SPOILERS and I suggest you skip the reviews with spoilers until after you see the film.

In my opinion this film is a gem in a sea of gravel. Although it could be more polished it nevertheless retains its value.

The actors performances range from competent to stellar (Alexia Rasmussen was particularly impressive but everyone involved held their own and had their moments to shine) and this is in no small part due to good writing and direction. Cinematography is a similar affair ranging from adequate to mesmerizing. It is certainly a mixed bag but you'd be pressing pretty hard to go so far as to call any of it bad. I personally felt the score was superb and fit the tone of the scenes well.

With the exception of a fairly brutal scene in the first act of the film there really isn't much violence or gore on screen here and what little of it there is was handled tastefully. Visually there is nothing here you won't have seen before. What makes it disturbing is the context, the emotional and psychological mayhem rippling through the characters affected and the cold distance maintained by those less/ unaffected around them. The behavior of the main characters may be extreme but they are the extremes of common conditions.

This is where the film truly shines, as a study of the human condition when emotional needs are not satisfied, the common phenomenon of loneliness and isolation within a dense population and the resulting psychoses. The way empathy is handled in a clinical fashion by professionals and dished out superficially by peers when it suits their agenda, the way people within various relationships, genders (or rather, levels of masculinity or femininity within both genders) as well as how deserving a person may actually be of true empathy anyway are all bouncing off each other here and it's really engrossing to behold if this sort of thing interests you.

I really don't want to spoil anything for any of the viewers for whom this film is intended so I hope it suffices to say that there are "twists" resulting from the nontraditional narrative structure that create an unpredictable thriller spliced with elements of drama/ horror. Every time I made an educated assumption of where things were headed the film surprised me and seemed to revel in doing so until the credits rolled.

If you are the type of person who thinks a character in a film who happens to be of a certain gender or sexual orientation being portrayed as flawed is an accusation directed at everyone in that category or, more importantly, are enduring the loss of a loved one . . . viewer discretion is advised.

I hope this film isn't lost in the horde of mediocre entries in the genre(s). From me this film scores a solid 8/10.

interesting but too much

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 13 November 2022]

Esther Woodhouse (Alexia Rasmussen) is very pregnant. While walking home, she's attacked by an unknown assailant. The attacker keeps hitting her pregnant stomach and she loses her baby. In support group, she befriends Melanie Michaels (Alexa Havins) who turns out to be a liar. Her husband Patrick (Joe Swanberg) and child are very much alive. Anika Barön (Kristina Klebe) is Esther's lesbian lover.

This has a lot of twists and turns. The two women have unknowable motives. They are like a mystery wrapped in a riddle. It's a bit interesting. The movie is long at two hours. It's trying to do too much with too many issues.

Unpleasant movie, but not really disturbing

[Groverdox · 5/10 · 18 April 2019]

"Proxy" is a strange and unpleasant movie. It has quite a few unanswered questions, which at first might pique your interest, but by the end, I was more or less just glad it was over.

The movie opens with a pregnant woman being bludgeoned over the head and knocked unconscious. She is then seen lying in broad daylight, the assailant hammering on her belly, obviously attempting to kill the baby.

The baby is then delivered in hospital by caesarean, stillborn.

The victim of this assault has no friends or family, so she goes to a support group where she meets a woman, Melanie, who claims that her son was kidnapped.

Later, however, she sees her in a department store where she freaks out, claiming her son has been kidnapped. In the parking lot, our protagonist sees her carrying her son back into the place she claims she just lost him.

Surmising that Melanie wants to lose her kid, and inexplicably thinking she might be attracted to her, Esther comes onto her but is rebuffed utterly, so she breaks into Melanie's house and kills her son off-screen. When the husband realises what she did, he murders Esther, who had been our protagonist up til now, with a shotgun. This is also shown off-screen, but liberal amounts of blood is shown splashing his face.

So now Melanie is the protagonist. But it turns out that Esther's assailant was actually her girlfriend who killed her baby at her request? If so, why did she do it in broad daylight, where she obviously could have been caught? Why didn't Esther just throw herself down a flight of stairs or something?

And when the husband kills Esther. He didn't even know she'd killed his kid. What happened in that room had barely been established. But he just grabs a gun and goes boom boom.

"Proxy" seems to be set in a world in which everybody is a psychopath. Extreme violence is never far away. I have no idea what to make of it. But there's not enough to think about or get involved with in the movie to make it troubling. It's just unpleasant.

Most ridiculously insane movie I've ever had the displeasure of watching...

[thecorleys · 9 October 2019]

I have to say, this was the worst thing I've ever had to sit through. I kept hoping that at some point it would all come together and make some sort of sense, unfortunately, that never happened. Don't waste your time.

Pleased with this movie

[janeak619 · 6/10 · 2 December 2014]

I watched this movie because I had a feeling I knew what it was about, just by the title. I am fascinated with the background stories of people's lives and what drives them to act how they do.

I didn't know what to expect with this movie, but overall, I thought it was very well made and intriguing. I liked that it was unpredictable, and even though some scenes were very slow paced, they added to the suspense and wonder about what would happen next. The music was fitting to the story and perfectly eerie. I liked the acting and direction. The cinematography was also impressive. The story was not hard to follow, but at the same time, mysterious.

2nd Shot

[caimaupin · 6/10 · 30 January 2020]

When the husband said he shouldn't have fire the 2nd shot....I seriously thought to myself...he shouldn't have fired the 1st shot. She was a tiny woman, that he could have easily took down by his self without a weapon. She had no weapon and was just itty bitty.

Why??

[pinkdasha · 3/10 · 30 September 2018]

So im already 2hrs into this movie wigh 20mins left and I'm only finishing it because I came this far. They only positive thing I can say is good acting. Everything else just a waste of time. I love horror movies and was ready for a psychological thriller but this is boring me to DEATH!

Had Potential Except...

[JonnyDR75 · 5/10 · 5 June 2020]

I can't decide if the actor who plays Anika was terrible because of how poorly the character was written or if she is just a terrible actor. In either case, she turned what could have been a respectable, decent film into a lame Indy ruined by one bad performance.

Intriguing but flawed

[LnineB · 3/10 · 24 May 2018]

Somehow this uneven disturbing drama keeps your interest even though it has flat and drab acting and a clumsy plot. A satisfying ending would've saved the film completely but it failed miserably in that department. As a matter of fact, the film literally ends as if they ran out of production budget but I doubt that is true because it runs a full 2 hours. The film is purposefully ambiguous and plays with the question of what would happen if psychopaths meet each other. This cat and mouse play is actually successful. It's also successful at studying the true life mental disorder of Munchausen syndrome. The two main characters display this syndrome in horrific ways. Where it falls flat is in the attempt to wrap up a complex story with the most elementary and lazy ending ever. It was almost like the writer was purposefully sabotaging the film. A lot of people compared it a Hitchcock film but to me it reminded of Brain De Palma lesser films. Actually this film plays better as a satire of De Palma films but I doubt that was its intent.

Crazy Hitchcockian Birds.

[horizon2008 · 8/10 · 7 May 2014]

Oh the need to be in the spotlight, the need to be loved, the need to be draped in others sympathy. This is the tale of Proxy. And while it certainly has many plot holes (which the less patient seem to be shouting about loudly), it has enough style to keep everyone on board to the end, maintaining an air of dark brooding menace for most of it's running time. And that soundtrack? Its just fantastic, I couldn't work out if the film really was Hitchcockian or the brilliant score just made it seem that way. But from the shock opening scene (which may upset a few), to it's twisted end, it never gets boring, and it kept my ears pricked up enjoying it's burrowing plot. The acting is top notch, and I think I might check out this director's other efforts now. But I would recommend Proxy to those able to ignore it's little holes.

Ps. And to the person who didn't understand why the shirt in one scene had blood, then hadn't, that was intentional. Think about it, she was already dead. This was the character imagining what he would do to her if she wasn't. When he walks outside (to reality again), the blood is gone. Surely not everything in cinema as simple as this needs signposted?

What?!!!

[thediva-89114 · 5/10 · 14 May 2021]

I'm non the wiser after watching this what the hell actually happened.....

Proxcide

[gzm586 · 1/10 · 20 August 2018]

What the heck did I just watch? The story made no sense. Obviously the other reviews were done by the actors in the movie. Run from this one.

Child murder scene ruins Hitchcock wannabe director's attempt at black humor

[Turfseer · 2/10 · 18 April 2014]

The best word to describe Zack Parker's new pseudo-Hitchcock horror/thriller is 'twisted'. Let's give Mr. Parker some credit for hitting up all those doctors and dentists and actually getting his film produced. But beyond that, there's something rather seedy and exploitative about Parker's tale of two demented women and their need for attention.

'Proxy' might have actually earned positive points in the pantheon of horror or thriller genre goodies, had he infused his characters with a modicum of verisimilitude. But alas, there's none of that here. Proxy begins with anti-heroine #1, Esther, whose late-term pregnancy is terminated violently in an alleyway, by a hooded assailant. We're fooled into having sympathy for Esther as it appears that she ends up as a classic victim who attends a bereavement group.

But soon, Parker attempts to shock by revealing that Esther's lesbian lover, Anika, killed Esther's baby in utero, at her request. Esther reveals her contempt for motherhood but instead of arranging for an abortion, the staged street assault is consummated because she merely wants attention. The motive of perverted Esther is awfully hard to believe in but Parker asks us to suspend our disbelief and continue on with him into darker scenarios to come.

Then Esther meets her so-called 'proxy', Melanie, at the aforementioned bereavement group. Esther discovers that Melanie attends the group as part of a twisted fantasy where she imagines that she's lost both her husband and young son in a car accident. Then Esther spies Melanie pretending that she's lost her son in a department store. What happens afterward is where Mr. Parker completely lost me. It's one thing to have a black comedy where all the characters are sort of perverse and demented and their actions might occasionally amuse; but please don't do things like have one of your characters murder a young child.

But nothing will stop Mr. Parker in his quest for cheap thrills. He actually has Esther go over to Melanie's house, and drown a child in a bathtub (fortunately, Mr. Parker doesn't show the actual drowning of the child in all its gory detail). Nonetheless, the murder leaves a most unpleasant taste in one's mouth, for the rest of the film. As for Esther's motive in killing the child, she deems Melanie a hypocrite for 'fantasizing' about mourning for her child, and decides to have the fantasy, turn into reality.

Wouldn't you know it but Melanie's creepy husband, Patrick, kills Esther by blowing her away with his handy shotgun and she unceremoniously falls into the bathtub in slow motion, with all her blood and guts splaying in multiple directions. The attendant police investigation is not shown on screen and we're asked to believe that the police are stymied in uncovering Esther's identity. What's more, Melanie actually succeeds in maintaining hers and Patrick's anonymity, despite the media coverage (a story about a woman breaking into a home and murdering a young child, probably would have went viral all over the internet, and made the national news). Still, Mr. Parkers maintained at a recent Q&A, that this was merely a 'local' story.

Before the denouement, the narrative slows down considerably as there's too much focus on a despondent Patrick, contemplating his next course of action. Mr. Parker intimates that Patrick is one step away from being a serial killer himself (he fantasizes about what he could have done to Esther had he only wounded her and brought her down to the basement, where he could have done it the 'right way', using all of his special 'equipment').

Melanie becomes a proxy as she fulfills Esther's prediction that she'll basically become a killer just like her. 'Proxy' plays out when Anika decides to take revenge on Patrick and Melanie for Esther's death. She's not that surprised when she finds Melanie has already finished Patrick off in the bathroom but IS surprised when Melanie blows her away with Patrick's shotgun.

Kristina Klebe as Anika probably steals the show as Esther's over the top lesbian lover. There's not much more to recommend about 'Proxy'. Worse than the characters lack of believability is probably the director's failure to approach the story with a sense of fun. Instead, he inserts scenes including the murder of a child, wholly inappropriate for the atmosphere of black humor, which he is attempting to convey.

What???!!!! Sooo confused

[rashelle-04969 · 1/10 · 20 December 2017]

How come no one brought up the fact that the husband murdered someone in the basement! He grabs the girl outta the tub then tortures her in the basement. It's never brought up by anyone like we're all just gonna ignore the fact that it happened