Jinx (2024) 💀½

Jinx presents a promising setup - a young woman alone on a deserted train platform, facing a skull-faced jester across the tracks. Certainly, this plays into the recent popularity of silent clowns in horror (such as Art the Clown), but the film quickly abandons its potential for dread, descending into a morass of confusion and predictability.

A film of this nature often lives or dies by its antagonist's physical performance. Nicholas Petrarchi makes the most of limited material, but can't transcend the derivative nature of the role. Jinx winds a Jack-in-the-box, loudly claps their gloved hands, and cocks their head - all familiar gestures from better films. Even a stellar performance couldn't elevate such obvious retreading of other filmmakers' ideas. Despite the script giving him little room to develop anything original, Petrarchi manages a few genuinely creepy moments.

Not so for our protagonist, who seems oddly distanced as things play out around her. Tague's performance feels like she is simply responding to what she is being told to do. There is not a single spark of life to be found, and she moves through the film like a sleepwalker. When finally provided with a spoken line, Tague's delivery borders on conversational, not reflecting the merest hint of trepidation, let alone fear. This becomes especially egregious when the film falls on a tired and over-used supernatural cliche, the villain vanishing while off-camera, but in full view of the main character. Jinx's sudden appearance behind Isabel is a well crafted shot but, when we are shown that he is no longer standing directly in front of her, there is no reaction to this impossible event. Failing to sell this moment breaks the tension from mere moments before and, when she turns to see Jinx behind her, we are hard pressed to care.

The film's fundamental problems crystalize in its central "riddle", revealed through an admittedly clever sequence of scrawled playing cards. But what we get isn't actually a riddle at all:

I'm a fool with a twisted grin.
Laughter and chaos, my deadly sin.
Solve my riddle or face my blade.
For I am Jinx, and your fate has been made...

This verse, while perhaps suitable for marketing copy, epitomizes the film's empty theatrics. Having a silent killer demand we solve a non-existent puzzle doesn't create tension, it merely underscores the inevitability of the outcome. The well-shot card sequence, like much of the film, becomes an exercise in style over substance.

The film's technical execution only serves to highlight its narrative failings. Director Anthony Petrarchi demonstrates a skilled eye for composition and movement - particularly during Isabel's arrival at her stop, where tight camera work creates genuine tension as it follows uncomfortably close behind her. Such moments of visual craft make the weak script and lifeless central performance all the more frustrating. Petrarchi's camera tries desperately to breathe life into material that remains stubbornly inert.

With a simple premise that fails to deliver in any meaningful way, Jinx stands as a tragic waste of potential.

2024 ✶ 5m ✶ Color ✶ US ✶ Director: Anthony Petrarchi ✶ Screenplay: Anthony Petrarchi ✶ Music: Christian Engquist ✶ Starring: Nicholas Petrarchi (Jinx), Jessica Tague (Isabel Mikaelson) ✶ YouTube.