Lo!

A little while ago I was skimming through the list of instantly watchable movies on netflix.com and feeling pretty disappointed about my options when I came across this move called Lo. It was given 4 stars by users (which is pretty high for netflix) which intrigued me. It was labeled simultaneously horror, comedy, and romance. I like comedy, romance makes me a little nauseous, and horror makes me hide under the blankets. I was intrigued, but the wife was not, so Lo was ignored.

Recently, the wife got very sick and was stuck on the couch. We had to watch something to pass the time but nothing looked good. Time to summon Lo. The wife was falling asleep anyway...

So the movie starts out with a man in a dark room lit by only five candles that he uses in a ritual to summon a demon named Lo. Apparently the man's girlfriend was recently abducted by demons and he tries to command Lo to find and rescue her. Lo, however, seems more interested in eating him.

"I will now baptize you as Dinner."

"My name is Justin!"

"Dinner, you have to stop living in the past."

It was the witty dialog that really carried this film, which is a good thing because that's pretty much all there is. Watching this movie is like watching a play (I wouldn't be surprised if it was a play first). Of the three genres mentioned above, I would say the most prevalent one is comedy. A lot of the humor is pretty dark, but it is also pretty funny. Lo is creepy looking, and the atmosphere is grim, but I wouldn't call this a horror. There is a romantic element but this aint no Notebook. It turns out to be a rather poignant and philosophical look at love and the nature of creatures that are incapable of it.

I really enjoyed this movie, and despite an obviously low budget, this movie had strong performances, a compelling mystery, and a clever little twist that you'll probably figure out now that I informed you of its existence (who am I kidding? You would have got it anyway, you are so smart!).

It is very possible that you won't like this one, but I did. I was going to give it a B+, but because I really want to watch it again, I'm bumping it up to an A-.