Movie Notes: 'The Voices' (2014) is a Candy Colored Killer Movie

In "The Voices," Ryan Reynolds plays Jerry, a man whose mundane life as a bathtub factory worker masks a mind fracturing at its seams. His home above an abandoned bowling alley feels like a metaphor for his existence - everything operational on the surface, emptiness churning below. Jerry's companions are a dog and cat who speak to him in voices that represent the ancient struggle between good and evil, though of course, they don't really speak at all.

The film takes a darkly comic turn when Jerry's manager tasks him with organizing the company barbecue - a transparent attempt to facilitate his crush on Fiona (Gemma Arterton). There's something touching about Jerry's earnest pursuit of normalcy, even as we sense the darkness gathering at the edges of the frame. When Fiona stands him up for a karaoke night with her accounting colleagues, leaving him alone in a Chinese restaurant, we feel the weight of his isolation.

But fate, that cruel playwright, orchestrates a chance encounter when Fiona's car breaks down. What follows is a sequence that begins like a romantic comedy but descends into Grand Guignol horror. A hit deer becomes Jerry's first victim, and as he hallucinates the dying animal begging for release, we watch his tenuous grip on reality finally snap. The scene where he pursues Fiona, ending in her brutal death, plays out like a grotesque dance - a waltz of madness and violence that feels both shocking and somehow inevitable. It's as if we're watching the death not just of Fiona, but of Jerry's last chance at conventional happiness.

"The Voices" belongs to that rare breed of film that makes you laugh uncomfortably while your conscience squirms. Ryan Reynolds plays Jerry, a cheerful factory worker whose pets offer him conflicting advice about murder – though of course, they're not really talking at all. This is the kind of movie that dares you to sympathize with its protagonist even as he's storing severed heads in his refrigerator.

What's fascinating here is how director Marjane Satrapi creates two distinct realities: the candy-colored wonderland of Jerry's delusions, and the grimy, blood-spattered truth that emerges whenever he takes his medication. The film plays like a demented version of "Harvey," except instead of a gentle giant rabbit, we get a malevolent Scottish cat named Whiskers urging our hero toward violence, while his dog Bosco plays the role of failed moral compass.

The central tragedy – and yes, this horror-comedy is ultimately a tragedy – lies in Jerry's choice to embrace his psychosis rather than face reality. When he stops taking his medication, his apartment transforms from a squalid horror show into a cozy home, and the severed heads of his victims become chatty companions. Reynolds manages the difficult feat of making Jerry both pitiful and frightening, often in the same scene.

What elevates "The Voices" above mere shock value is its understanding of mental illness as a maze where every turn might lead to either salvation or destruction. When Jerry begins dating Lisa (another co-worker, after his first romantic interest ends up in Tupperware), we're caught between hoping for his redemption and dreading what we know must come.

This isn't a great film, but it's an audacious one. It takes risks that don't always pay off, but its willingness to walk the tightrope between horror and humor, between sympathy and revulsion, makes it impossible to dismiss. In an era of safe, focus-grouped entertainment, there's something admirable about a movie that trusts its audience to handle such moral complexity.

Three stars.

For movie information visit The Voices post at Cinemunch
This movie is available on available on Amazon - The Voices [Blu-ray] or download on iTunes - The Voices - Unknown
Photo: Voices, The Voices 2014 
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This is a part of Fright Cinema 2015, a list of the best horror movies handpicked in no particular order by The Wandering Klutz. It features ten (10) films every year just in time for the scariest season of the year.