Pyewacket is a late 2010’s occult chiller featuring a feeling of brooding & building 1970’s creepiness, with modern angsty at times grim touches mixed in. It tells of an into the occult and dark music teen, who falls out with her mother, and decides to perform a ritual against her- summoning up something that may or may not be real. Here from Signature Entertainment, via streaming on Amazon prime video is a new release of the film.

Released in 2017 Pyewacket was written and directed by Montréal born Adam MacDonald. This was his second feature-length film after 2014’s Backcountry which was a surviving in the wilds thriller, though he’s been most active as an actor notching up forty-four credits since the late 1990s. Pyewacket is very much of a slow-building affair, with some really effectively spine-chilling moments along its length. Though at points its hour and a half long film does feel a little baggy/ un-substantially in places- but there is enough here to make it stand above many of the 2000’s occult chillers.

The film focuses on Leah (Nicole Muñoz)- a slight brunette in her late teens, who lives with her mother (Laurie Holden). Leah’s father died some time back, meaning her mother finds it difficult to live in the family home anymore- so she decides she’s going to sell up and move out in the country- this she informs Leah of with little or no notice. Meaning she'll be away from her teen pals- shy and ragged denim jacket Aaron (Eric Osborn) who has a crush on Leah. Pieced nosed and dyed haired Janice (Chloe Rose), and brash shaved head with a qiffed Rob (Romeo Carere). The whole group has a joint interest in both ritual magic and dark music.
 
Where Leah and her mother move is out by the edge of a forest, with the house standing alone. When moving in her mother makes nasty comments about Leah looking like her father- so she decides to go out into the woods to summon up a Pyewacket- who is seemingly a shape-shifting entity, to kill her mother. Fairly soon she starts seeing things in the corner of her eyes, hearing strange knocks above her, and weird creaks. And in time she regrets doing the spell in anger, as she really didn't mean it….but she has to figure out what to do before the Pyewacket comes for her mother, then for her as she summoned it up.
 
The ritual that starts the whole thing off is suitable grim- with Leah deep slashing her arm, mixing her blood with milk and her mother's hair in the grey and brown fallen leaf forest. After the ritual, we get roaming through the forest Evil Dead-like filming, with a backdrop of angularly droning and dark strings. As things go on, we get moodily effective scenes in the woods- with eerier creaking trees, shadows and stark just seen skies. Inside the isolated house- with just out of focuses shadow figures, creep bangs and creaks. The feeling of dread & terror is nicely built, as we move towards the fairly neat/ if rather cut short finale and rewarding enough twist.
 
There’s no doubt MacDonald has the ability and skill to create both creeping unease, and later on moments of fairly pulse bounding terror. The acting throughout is fair to quite good, as in the sound design/ soundtrack. On the less positive side- when we see brief glimpses of Pyewacket in its true form is a little cliched/ underwhelming- though thankfully it's largely unseen/ in the shadows, or mimicking others in a rather chilling manner. In finishing I’d certainly say if you enjoy slow-burn occult horror, with moments of well-placed/ realized dread & creepiness- then I think you’ll enjoy what Pyewacket has to offer.