Despite being described by the Seattle International Film Festival as “lean, mean and brain teasing,” the Washington state-based thriller Paralytic, about a small town sheriff attempting to decode a cryptic mystery put in place by an assassin who has turned his sights on his drug cartel employers, is certainly lean but not so much a brain tease, for you have to care first to even want to unravel the mystery.
And I just didn’t care.
Though somewhat hampered by a cast that can’t always exude the emotional range perhaps needed to bring director Joey Johnson’s vision to life, the acting is fine for a low-budget indie such as this. But the thriller never finds the tension it desperately needs; the film never feels like it is mounting to anything, each scene relatively toneless and flat.
Paralytic perhaps has the ingredients and concept to be something more than it is, but it’s a recipe with flavorless results.
Paraltytic screened at the 2016 Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF).
Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.