"The Innocent" Review: New Dark Drama From Jason Hawkins

Daren Ackerman in The Innocent

Every seven seconds in America, a child is victimized by a bully. Adults who witness these attacks will only intervene 4% of the time. 11% of the time, a friend will come to the victim's aid...and become victims themselves.

Going into my viewing of The Innocent, the new film from writer/director Jason Hawkins and Gravestone Entertainment, this is basically all I knew about the film I was about to watch. This was a good thing.

The film follows a group of three high school friends - Devon, Becky and Garrett - that are your basic socially awkward, comic book reading, RPG video game playing nerds. The kids get picked on by a group of older, high school drop outs lead by John.

Alexander Fraser and Alicia Rose

On their way to school one morning, Devon is showing off a rare book he snagged off eBay to his friends. John passes them by in his oversized truck and decides to Devon's book. He tells Devon he can pick it up later. When Devon goes to retrieve his book, he finds John has ripped many of the pages out. This is where our story really picks up.

From here on out, its hard to dive too much further into the film without giving away too much information. The Innocent moves at a deliberate pace, spreading a twisty web full of ignorance, hate, and abuse that all come together to form a dark, emotionally disturbing climax. Imagine a Lifetime film that is incredibly heavy, showing a dark side of reality that no one wants to see.

The movie is carried by strong performance, most notably from Daren Ackerman, who plays the bully John. Ackerman shows off a lot of range in this performance. He goes from a menacing bully to a mental unstable psychopath to very childlike in the blink of an eye. Changes like this aren't uncommon in movies, but rarely does an actor nail it. I was buying Ackerman's portrayal of John every step of the way. 

Dara Davey

The supporting cast doesn't miss a beat. Dara Davey plays John's coked up girlfriend, Shelly. She's so fucked in the head from all the drugs she does that she somehow manages to make an already horrible situation much, much worse. Alexander Fraser, Alicia Rose, and Darren Hicks are all strong as the band of social misfits.

Horror fans will be pleased to see Adrienne King here as the school principal. King, as most of you will remember played Alice in the original Friday the 13th. In this film she does a fine job of being a character you hate.

The Innocent is another strong writing and directing effort from Jason Hawkins. The previous film I reviewed from Hawkins was a micro-budget, low-fi horror film. The Innocent is a terrific looking, high-def dark drama. Hawkins has shown an ability to make a complete 180 all while still delivering a quality film. He's an impressive director, that in my opinion, is on the rise. The Innocent I believe is just a small sample of the things to come.

written by Christopher Coffel