Good morning, House of Madness wanderers:
Ever wonder what it might be like to be a kid again, only instead of just reliving your youth, you get to do it with absolutely zero adult supervision? Nobody telling you to clean your room, nobody making a list of rules longer than your arm for you to obey, and nobody watching your every move while you just want to be a kid and have fun. On the flip side however, there's nobody to cook your meals, put a roof over your head, or protect you from life's unknowns. I think such a scenario would be answered vastly different if you were to pose the question to a child and then to an adult. Looking back, we know how important our parents were to our upbringing, but in the moment, we all thought we had life by the nuts, and the only thing standing in our way were those pesky adults.
For Ines (Chloe Guidry), the aforementioned world is a place all too real, where an often deadly virus wipes people out the instant they reach adolescence. Adults are a thing of the past like dinosaurs, sabertooth tigers, and Pauly Shore while the pre-adolescents roam free, in search of food, water, shelter, and most importantly, a cure. Ines and her long standing companion Bui (Nhedrick Jabier) are wandering through the forest in search of a child prodigy rumored to be living not too far from their location, and this genius they seek may just have the cure they and everyone else has been longing for. As they're making their way through the forest, they hear music playing, and upon further inspection, see a heavily armed girl behind a fence in an amusement park compound guarding some water. Time to move in.
As Bui hangs back, Ines plays the role of injured wanderer, and befriends the mystery girl named Kuan (Carmina Garay). As soon as Ines has Kuan's trust, she grabs her machine gun and demands all of Kuan's belongs, to which Kuan laughs, as the gun is fake. A power struggle ensues, but Kuan overpowers Ines and things are right back to where they started. It takes time, but eventually Ines and Kuan make a truce, and decide they're both on the same team, while Bui stews chained up to a fence after failing to overpower Kuan himself. Not long after, the disease consumes Kuan, leaving Ines and Bui to fend for themselves once more, the strong friendship made between Ines and Kuan lingering in the past.
As the duo head out in search of a cure once more, they're interrupted by what I'll call 'The Crew in Blue' out of nowhere, seeking God knows what, with violent tendencies. This gang of thugs surely has sinister intentions, but the only way to find out for sure is to take them head-on, and settle this once and for all. If Ines and Bui are victorious, they shall live another day knowing life's clock is ticking away at a rapid pace, but if they should lose, they are simply speeding up the inevitable, and can finally be at peace.
"The Park" has a nice message to portray, but unfortunately goes about telling it in a boring, drawn out way. Even at only 76 minutes, I often found myself looking at my watch and saying "get on with it!" as the selfish characters on screen failed to pull at my heart strings as intended. Overall "The Park" is a mish mash of developing friendships while trying to be a survival thriller, yet desperately lacks the thrills needed to concoct a successful formula. If you were to take away everything that made "Lord of the Flies" so brilliant, I believe this film is what you'd be left with at the end of the day. In an imaginary world lacking maturity, this film really could have used some adult supervision.
Madness Meter: 4.4/10
NB
