Wound

Wound

New Zealand

ILA Film Productions

Wound is a dark, terror filled film dealing with mental instability and madness. When you add antidepressant drugs and an unsympathetic public to the mix, the effects on the mind can be terrible. David Blyth is no stranger to such controversial films. Angel Mine and Death Warmed Up also covered strongly challenging themes.

Susan killed her parents by burning down their house when she was young. She lost a baby, a result of her being raped, when she was fourteen. She is in a submissive relationship with her boss, and her schooling was a succession of problems including being molested by her father. How then can she kill her father later when she is adult and bury his body in the garden? Obviously Susan’s mind, in spite of her medication, is still confused.

Her situation seems to improve when her daughter Tanya turns up, having finally found her mother who gave her up as a baby. Although Susan’s mother said the baby had died, here she is alive and well. Tanya takes control of her mother’s life and for a while it seems Susan may be improving, but she suspects Tanya may be trying to kill her. Tanya seems to have inherited a few of her mother’s mental problems.

Susan is admitted to hospital for further treatment but an unsympathetic doctor believes she is hallucinating about Tanya and arranges to have her sent to a psychiatric institution. Tanya rescues her from the hospital, but that night the ambulance crew arrives to sedate her and take her to the institution. Tanya goes crazy and there is an orgy of blood.

The somewhat disjointed nature of the film at first is confusing. It is full of unlikely events, strange “explanations”, and complete inconsistencies. Then we realize that we are seeing inside Susan’s confused mind where all things can be explained away, but at the cost of Susan sinking deeper into her illness. She can’t separate reality from wishful thinking from madness. There is a strong touch of the need for revenge on those she believed hurt her.

Blyth has given us a film that is frightening in its viewpoint. We are seeing psychotic illness from the inside, and it’s not pretty.

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