Growing Out Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

U.S. 2009
Director: Graham Ratliff
Cast: Michael Hampton, Devon Iott, Chase Hemphill, Ryan Sterling, Ben Bowden
Rating: -
Release Date: 2009
Running Time: 1 hour 44 minutes 48 secs

The Movie Review

Growing Out film still 1


GROWING OUT
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Moving in to someone else's resident, you could stumble upon more than just a mere culture shock. In some parts of America, there have been several accounts of some guests of hotels found rotten corpses below their bed, although it's believed as an urban legend, still it's creepy. But what this independent film, Growing Out has to offer is even more shocking than that.... a 'growing hand'! And by those two words I mean literally a hand that grows. I was very excited with the premise and guessing it would be an exciting film, but then again, just as an urban legend which most of them were eventually proven untrue, Growing Hand doesn't deliver its great premise.

Tom (Michael Hampton) is a failed musician/guitarist who sucks at his music playing that eventually makes him got kicked out of his job as a performer at a coffee shop. While wandering through the neigbourhood, Tom comes across an old man with one hand named Vernon (Ben Bowden) who's able to play a guitar very well. Coincidentally, that old man needs a caretaker with a payment of free room and board. So Tom is hired and this jumpy fella soon meets another man who lives nearby at the back of the house, Philip (Chase Hemphill). Philip who lives in an airtight caravan is still luckier than Tom for having a blonde guitar-playing girl, Veronica (Devon Iott) who has made Tom falls for her at the park. Feeling down again, Tom then starts to clean up the basement of the house, but instead of finding rats, cob-webs or cockroaches, he finds... A freakin' hand! And no it's not of a mannequin, it's a living hand coming out of the ground. What's more freakier, the next day the 'hand' grows to be an arm! What is this thing really? And what is really happening on that old dusty house?

I love the premise, a promising one indeed. Reminds me of Jessica Alba's 1999 movie called Idle Hands. And I was hoping it would at least match the wacky fun horror of Idle Hands, sadly Growing Out grows out to be one long tedious movie. With the great premise at hands, it seems the writer (who's also the director) didn't know what to do about his idea. In the middle, the movie seems to lost focus, it doesn't know what it wants to be... A comedy? A horror? A drama? or... A set of music videos? Hmmm, the last one kind of a misfit there right? Sure thing, because in some parts all we see is how good Jason De Meo (Michael Hampton's real singing voice) and Devon Iott are at playing guitar and singing their song. On the tree, at the cafe, at the basement, in the bedroom, and on the porch. Hefty singing scenes for a horror movie, I'll say.

When the comedy strikes, it's actually pretty funny, but the horror, it's nowhere near scary. It tries to be brutal and gory but most of them are off-screen. Then when it comes to drama, the dialogues are not interesting, and definitely no chemistry between Michael Hampton and Devon Iott. Although the performance of all the cast are decent. It is so regrettable a movie with a promising premise like Growing Out could not live up to the expectation that it builds on the beginning. I just hope that the director and writer Graham Ratliff could come up with another creative idea bundled with exciting storyline.