Depraved (2019, Larry Fessenden) (Patreon)

46/100

Didn't take one note, I discover upon checking my phone—a testament to this Frankenstein riff's fundamental blandness, perhaps, but also a bit of a challenge for me, since the film has all but evaporated several days later. Fessenden's ostensibly fresh angle on Shelley's oft-told tale involves making the monster (here called Adam, though there's a "twist" to that clichéd name choice) even more sympathetic than usual, to the point where he eventually becomes figuratively as well as literally woke. Depraved's truly depraved character isn't even the doctor surrogate (David Call, looking exactly nothing like he does in Two Gates of Sleep, which I'd happened to rewatch the previous night; this dude is underrated in my opinion; see also Gabriel, for which I tossed him a few Skandie points), but rather the doctor surrogate's wealthy, amoral patron, who I gather is meant to vaguely remind us of Martin Shkreli or someone along those lines. A miscast Joshua Leonard fails to make this corporate villain memorably hissable, however, and in any case it takes a small eternity for the movie to get beyond its pro forma pedagogic phase, during which Adam slowly progresses, in mental terms, from innocent newborn to impulsive (and horny) toddler. Addison Timlin (from Afterschool) shows up and makes a strong impression in one tense scene, but the film is otherwise largely a turgid talkfest slightly enlivened by first-rate cobbled-parts makeup and Alex Breaux's quizzical performance. Even the decision to show us whose brain Adam ends up with leads nowhere terribly interesting, despite the recurring presence of the dead man's girlfriend. Fessenden avoids the obvious, I suppose, but that's the best I can manage by way of praise.