The Pierce Brothers’ latest occult horror ‘The Wretched’ begins with a seemingly familiar premise. The year is 1985 and a young teen, who goes about her regular babysitting job on a rainy, gloomy evening, is in for a terrifying surprise. A blood-thirsty witch is on the prowl after all. The story might sound predictable, but The Wretched does pack in a few surprises up its sleeve.

While the horror jumps across two time periods in the beginning, it is mostly set-in present-day America, where Ben (John-Paul Howard), a 17-year-old boy plays the protagonist. Having just moved in his with his father (who is newly separated from his wife), Ben has a tough time fitting in, and his troubled past does not make things easier. He finds a friend in Mallory (Piper Curda), a chirpy young lady, who assists Ben’s father in running a Marina nearby. Their new-blooming teenage romance, however, is cut short by the eeriness surrounding the neighbourhood. Abbie (Zarah Mahler), Ben’s neighbour sets the alarm bells ringing, by walking into the forest in the dead of night, and hovering over Ben’s house with rickety bones. Possessions and witches are revealed and the nightmares begin.

The film toys with an interesting concept—a tale about a witch that feeds on the forgotten. The film, however, does little justice to the juicy idea. Packed with jump scares, The Wretched becomes quite predictable in terms of its chills. The skin-crawling horror is quite literal in the film, often at the expense of evoking real terror. The film is backed by solid performances courtesy of John-Paul and Piper Curda, who shine in a few chilling moments. But the plot, often, shoddily jumps between shots, distancing the viewer from the film, with every other sequence.