 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: The Waiting • Year: 2020 • Country: USA • Director: F.C. Rabbath • Main cast: Nick Leali, Molly Ratermann, Laura Altair • Runtime: 88 minutes • Production company: F.C. Rabbath Creations • TRAILER
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Despite the fact that the story in The Waiting (2020) is based on supernatural events it is far from being a horror movie. This is the first and most important fact to understand the film we have in hands here. Because the haunted spirit inhabiting the hotel room is not a vengeful one, or at least not one with evil intentions. This is not a movie conceived to scare the audience, and that’s a fact. Should this be considered a spoiler? Because although I was aware of the plot of the movie I was expecting some scary ghost involvements. It is not a bad thing, of course, we horror lovers also have our little black hearts.
The Waiting (2020) is a ghost story, yes, but a romantic one. It is a story about people who want to love but are not loved back, both alive or already deceased, encountering their lonely and hungry hearts in the need to face dimensional distances. It is a very simple movie, very good-hearted, and with very honest pretensions.
As the movie starts, one can see similarities to The Innkeepers (2011), that movie written and directed by Ti West a decade ago where two clerks in a haunted hotel must deal with the secrets of the building in a business that is soon to close for good. But, soon, it goes to paths close to other titles where the romantic side takes over the horror, like in Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water (2017), where the romance between the monstrous creature and one of the facility cleaners are the center of attention while they have to overcome some other difficulties that spice-up the tale. Because, here, as the spirit of a broken-hearted young woman is inhabiting the hotel room where she took her own life, nobody is violently murdered, there is no real threat or demonic entity, only the supernatural representation of her and the people who want to help her or take advantage of her.
As I mentioned before, The Waiting (2020) presents a story that goes in different ways than the ones we are used to in the world of horror. And is welcome with open arms. In fact, and due to the simplicity of the story and the honesty of the performances and the filming imprinted by writer, producer, and director F.C. Rabbath, it becomes a touchy and sensitive watch. The fact that the filmmakers avoid any spectacularity or the abuse of a visual display helps everybody, the ones behind and in front of the screen, to focus on the narrative and the feelings the characters are handling.
Although, let’s be honest, that simplicity is also related to a budgetary situation. The Waiting (2020) is a small independent movie, performed by not known actors, and with plenty of evident limitations in all the aspects. But its best feature is to have turned those limitations into honesty and tenderness.
It is unsure what distribution will The Waiting (2020) have, but I think it would fit in the catalog of most of the streaming platforms. And it is a movie that won’t be on our top list, but that doesn’t seem to be its goal. The goal of the filmmakers here was to make a touchy and, why not, silly love story to prove that in a world dominated by chaos, exhausting digital effects, bad guys doing very bad things for reasons that are never fully understood, and ridiculous heroes that think to be in the right of imposing their own justice, there is still a place in our rotten hearts for a simple fable with purely good intentions. It doesn’t matter if it borders being foolish or childish, what matters are the feelings it awakens in you. And, being honest, The Waiting (2020) worked for me.
RATE: 5/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7046966
