Kryptic (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

PopEntertainment
May 7
2 min read

KRYPTIC (2024)

Starring Chloe Pirrie, Jeff Gladstone, Jason Deline, Ali Rusu-Tahir, Kamantha Naidoo, Jenna Hill, Pam Kearns, Jane Stanton, Sara J. Southey, Jennifer Copping, Moses Wamukoya, Sarah Hayward, Patti Allan, Christina Lewall and Ardy Ramezani.

Screenplay by Paul Bromley.

Directed by Kourtney Roy.

Distributed by Well Go USA Entertainment. 96 minutes. Rated R.

It is rare that a film’s title is so fitting as this.

Of course, the film is supposed to be about cryptozoology; the study of cryptids, creatures that are rumored to exist but have not been scientifically confirmed or recognized, i.e. Bigfoot, the Mothman, the Loch Ness Monster, Yeti, the Chupacabra, the Jersey Devil, etc.

However, this film is so surreal and confusing that I think that the word cryptic has a more literal definition here; having a meaning that is mysterious or obscure.

Which is not in itself a bad thing. Sometimes it can even be a good thing. But honestly, this is not necessarily one of those times. I had no idea what the hell was going on through most of Kryptic, and usually not in a good way.

Kryptic is ostensibly about the Sooka – a fictional wood creature which supposedly haunts the woods of a Canadian forest – however, most of the monsters here are of the human variety. We never actually see the Sooka, except in short scenes that appear to be hallucinations – which usually occur when characters are having sex.

Then again, almost all of Kryptic seems to be a hallucination.

Chloe Pirrie does a fine job of playing the lead character (or two lead characters? It’s hard to keep track). She is Kay Hall, a dentist who goes on a group monster hike in search of a missing crypto scientist named Barb Valentine (also played by Pirrie). She wanders off from the group and sees what she thinks may be having a sighting of the monster. Suddenly it is a hour later, she is covered in goop and has no memory of who she is or why she is there.

She returns to her life but is constantly pulled inexplicably back to the woods. She becomes obsessive about the lost woman, particularly since she looks exactly like her. She doesn’t know if she is the dentist or if she really is the missing scientist, and quite honestly neither does the audience.

From here, we may be flashing back and forth in time, or we may be watching one or the other of the women looking into the monster and the people who are searching for it. The men in Kryptic are mostly violent, overbearing, insecure assholes, and the women are not much better.

The monster becomes a symbol for violent sexuality in some visually arresting but queasy-making quick cutaways which are disturbingly reminiscent of Japanese tentacle porn. Or at least I think that is what it’s trying to do.

Eventually, arresting visuals and creating a sustained mood of horror and disgust is not enough to sell Kryptic. It should make some kind of narrative sense at some point, but it never really does.

Jay S. Jacobs