{"id":183359,"date":"2025-09-26T16:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T16:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/183359\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T16:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T16:57:09","slug":"vicious-review-bryan-bertinos-mystery-box-horror-earns-its-title-fantastic-fest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/183359\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Vicious’ Review – Bryan Bertino’s Mystery Box Horror Earns Its Title [Fantastic Fest]"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mystery box unleashes the type of horror that ensures Vicious earns its title in the latest from The Strangers and The Dark and the Wicked<\/a> writer\/director Bryan Bertino<\/a>. Three simple rules ignite a nihilistic nightmare in this holiday horror chamber piece, one that emphasizes emotional and experiential horror over storytelling. That means that the lofty questions raised by the central premise serve more as a Rorschach test than a narrative puzzle to solve, with a lack of handholding that\u2019s likely to polarize. It\u2019s also what gives Bertino\u2019s scares an unnerving edge in Vicious, anchored by a compelling central performance from Dakota Fanning.<\/p>\n

Vicious doesn\u2019t waste time getting straight to the horror, but it does give just enough of an introduction to Polly (Fanning) to know she\u2019s caught in a vicious loop of self-destruction and struggling with her sense of identity. Phone calls and voicemails with annoyed employers and anxious moms indicate turbulent relationships as Polly sets about her untidy kitchen and a sink full of dirty dishes. She\u2019s anxious over a looming job interview, yet Polly\u2019s sprawling house is filled with signs of past careers and hobbies that came and went. That\u2019s when a disoriented older woman (Kathryn Hunter) shows up at her door, giving Polly a strange box that comes with rules: give the box something she hates, something she needs, and something she loves. The woman is gone before Polly gets further explanation, but a ruthless game has already been set in motion.<\/p>\n

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Dakota Fanning stars in Paramount Pictures\u2019 \u201cVICIOUS.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bertino maintains his streak for casting well and eliciting tremendous performances out of his leads. Vicious rests almost entirely on Fanning\u2019s shoulders in a near one-woman show, a showcase for Fanning\u2019s incredible talent. It\u2019s not just in the quick work to establish Polly as a character before the box arrives, flaws and all, but in the daunting physicality required to play in a Bertino horror feature that requires sustained dread and terror for nearly the entire runtime. Vicious puts Polly through the wringer in every possible way, requiring Fanning to navigate the physical horrors of the box\u2019s self-harm demands or the emotional labor of its psychological torture. Torture might be the best descriptor here; Bertino employs some brutal tactics when it comes to testing Polly\u2019s resolve.<\/p>\n

There is no shortage of potent scares in store for both Polly and the audience, and the type of visceral bloodletting you expect from a Bertino film. Jennifer Spence\u2018s detailed production design lends personality, fleshing Polly\u2019s story out further, but it also serves as an eerie funhouse of horrors once Polly engages with the box in earnest. Armed with a soundscape that delivers an assault on the senses, Bertino makes quick work of exploiting just about every shadowed corner of Polly\u2019s home for potent scares. It\u2019s a nonstop barrage of ghastly visions, brutal psychological games, and pain as Polly seeks answers to stop it.<\/p>\n

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Dakota Fanning, left, and Emily Mitchell star in Paramount Pictures\u2019 \u201cVICIOUS.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vicious is at its most effective when allowing viewers to ponder what they\u2019d do if put in Polly\u2019s shoes, and how they\u2019d answer each question. The rules of the box are never as clearly defined as they present, and an extended conclusion will only further frustrate those hoping for an easy explanation. But in that conclusion lies one of the more optimistic endings to come along in a Bertino film, one that instills hope amidst the carnage that unforgiving depressive cycles can be disrupted. It makes Vicious at once deeply personal yet ambiguous, a horror film meant to challenge you as much as Polly. There\u2019s no question it delivers on frights, but how much you get out of Vicious is dependent upon how much you\u2019re willing to put of yourself in that box.<\/p>\n

Vicious made its World Premiere at Fantastic Fest<\/a> and releases on Paramount+ on October 10.<\/p>\n

\"3.5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mystery box unleashes the type of horror that ensures Vicious earns its title in the latest from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[108123,25101,88,206,4208,71924],"class_list":["post-183359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-bryan-bertino","tag-dakota-fanning","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-paramount","tag-vicious"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}