A Grim Becoming [Review]

A Grim Becoming, follows Raphael (Brandyn T. Williams), a young executive who is pretty much on the verge of losing the biggest deal of his life within his architectural job, and to make matters worse, his Nephew dies in an unfortunate Halloween accident. While all this is occurring, his rival Wayne, see’s this as his perfect opportunity to seize the moment and hopefully score that multimillion dollar deal, but will he?

While this is taking place, Raphael accidentally runs over a homeless guy and quickly realizes that he may have killed him. Raphael soon rushes to his aid only to witness to a grim reaper preparing to take the homeless mans soul. With this initial sighting of the reaper, Raphael must take the place of the reaper and become the taker of souls. However, it isn’t as clean-cut as that, as Raphael tries to still live his life while trying to control this change within him. Think An American Werewolf in London, except this time, the protagonist is changing into a reaper rather than a werewolf.

Within moments, Raphael is trying to control the changes which are occurring to him, which result in some slapstick moments while also delivering the horror. Kudos also goes to the film and the guys making it for not resorting to a CGI skeleton, but actually just using some camera trickery and it’s all the better for it.

With this new-found power, Raphael wants nothing to do with it, he doesn’t want to be in control if someone dies, but guiding him along the way is Death or Magoo (Michael Sciabarrasi), as Raphael is now one of his new reapers to collect souls, but Raphael wants to break free from the curse, so soon we follow Raphael on his adventure to rid him of this curse or will he simply give in and take the souls?

It’s a great and fun concept, and the as a viewer, I was fully encapsulated by it all, it had some fun moments, but also some truly horrific moments whereas Devanny Pinn’s character falls pray to a brutal death involving water and electricity, which certainly brings adds a realistic tone to the otherwise slapstick action going on.

As always, it’s great to see Bill Oberst Jr., although this time he got to play as someone who is a little touchy-feely, especially when he gets his hands on Devanny Pinn. He also gets to star alongside the bodacious Melantha Blackthorne, as they play the sort of odd couple who pretty much nail it every time they are on the screen. Just wait for the peanut butter scene, I never knew peanut butter could be so sexy!

Joining the gang is Jessica Cameron, who play s the role of Life, and she gives Raphael some advice on how to beat the curse and she definitely brightens up some of the darkness which plays throughout.

As I’ve said regarding the skeleton, there are some great practical effects to be had and hardly any CGI in sight. Magoo’s make-up as well as the little zombie girl’s are second to none. They’re simply outstanding and certainly give some of the bigger budgeted films a run for their money, it definitely gave the film much more legitimacy.

However, I did have some issues, but this mainly comes down to some of the dialogue being overwhelmed by some of the music in the background, and I struggled to hear what was going on some of the time, but apart from that it was a great time and I can see this one being a cult classic, especially for the Halloween period. It’s a great film with a lot of heart and a bloody one at that.

If you guys are looking for something original, A Grim Becoming, is definitely something I suggest you keep your eyes on.

Just a heads up, stay till after the credits for a little extra.