Z Parent Guide

Beth (Keegan Connor Tracey) and Kevin Parsons (Sean Rogerson) are living the suburban dream. Their son Josh (Josh Klyne), however, seems to be struggling. He’s picked up dozens of disciplinary notes from school, he’s spending more time on his own, and he’s invented an imaginary friend who he calls Z. His parents decide it’s a phase and he’ll get over it, until Beth realizes that, not only is Z far more real than she thought, but she’s seen him before…

Anyone else remember a movie that came out earlier this year, called The Prodigy? With a few minor plot differences, this is basically the same story. The premise and most of the behavior for the first two acts are identical. Then the third act gets a little weird, and it throws the pacing right off. I’m all for the creativity displayed at the end, but I wish it had been better integrated with the rest of the film. As is, it feels like a strangely long addition to the film and makes the 83 minute runtime feel longer than it should.

Although this isn’t the most original horror movie, it is competently made. The tension is well managed for the most part, and the acting (although it starts a little rough) improves as the movie goes on. The filmmakers make the most of a small budget by hiding the monster for most of the movie, and it’s a good thing too - the few times you do see Z, the CGI is pretty primitive. But this film does have something which other stock horror movies don’t, namely, the sense that everyone involved cared about the production. The primary advantage of smaller budget films like this is the sense that everyone involved did it because they wanted to, and not because the studio offered them millions of dollars to turn up.

Parental concerns are fairly limited. I only counted eight profanities, there is little actual violence, and there’s no sex to speak of. That said, the movie is pretty tense and frightening, so I definitely wouldn’t recommend this for children or anxiety-prone viewers. I have some respect for a horror flick that gets its screams by terrorizing the audience with atmosphere and hints rather than just flinging bloody, mangled corpses all over the place. The biggest irritant for me was the film’s insistence on pronouncing the letter “z” as “zee”. This is a Canadian film, and ought to know better; in the Great White North the last letter of the alphabet is pronounced “zed”.

Is this flick going to come up for any big awards? Is it going to become a cult classic? Probably not. Is it a decent way to spend an hour and a half? Sure. It holds its own decently well against larger budget movies - that is, as long as you don’t look directly at the CGI. Then it turns into a comedy.