CREDIT: VERTICAL ENTERTAINMENT
Look Away may seem like a fantastic thriller, but with a few too many faults, it doesn't live up to standards.

Look Away, written and directed by Assaf Bernstein, is a recently released psychological thriller that had so much potential to be good, but ended up falling short.

Rather than being thrilling or suspenseful, it was more like a mediocre hybrid of Mean Girls meets Stephen King’s Carrie. While the characters were believable and the acting was well done, the movie as a whole was very lacklustre.

Look Away features a sad, alienated teenager (played by India Eisley) who has an unstable home life and even worse school life. After the constant bullying and torment, she discovers her “other half” in a mirror. This spirit promises her to fix all of her problems if she just switches places with her. Once this (clearly) sinister half takes her place, she ends up taking things too far and seeks revenge on all those who have done her wrong.

While the plot line seemed interesting, the movie didn’t dive deep enough. Everything was extremely predictable which alone ruined the movie.

Psychological thrillers are supposed to make you think and take you through a roller coaster of twists and turns. Look Away was more like riding a merry-go-round.

On top of the movie not being intriguing, it wasn’t scary or suspenseful either. This is partially due to the predictability of the film, but it was also due to the overarching feeling it radiated.

Look Away was very sad and made you feel sorry for the main character, but that’s about it. Even when it came to the “suspenseful” scenes, the film’s sadness overshadowed any sense of fear. Adding some more dark and creepy music wouldn’t have even helped.

The one saving grace of the film was the acting and main character herself. Eisley did an incredible job at differentiating herself from the sinister other half. There was a clear difference when each of their presences were on screen. She was creepy, uncomforting, but still was able to make you feel sorry for her.

They also did try to give the movie an interesting back story as to where this evil twin in the mirror came from.

However, the unfolding of it was so broken and slow. This is probably the only element of the film that enticed me to watch it to the end, but once I got there, I was left with a lacklustre, uncreative halt.

Overall, Look Away completely missed the mark at being a psychological thriller. A sad drama with a creepy tone is a more fitting characterization of the film.

If you have some free time or need something playing in the background, this movie would be a good choice, but, if you want to be thrilled or provoked, Look Away is definitely not what you’re looking for.