Wounds

In the atmospheric and unsettling world of director Babak Anvari's Wounds, the fabric of reality slowly unravels, plunging a young bartender into a descent into madness. The story begins on a typical night in New Orleans, where Jeremy Boland, played by Armie Hammer, is tending to his shift at a dimly lit bar. As the evening wears on, a man hastily leaves the establishment, forgetting behind his phone. Jeremy, noticing the abandoned device, takes it upon himself to find the owner. The phone's mysterious owner is revealed to be Will (Dietland's Blake Debossert), who has disappeared under ominous circumstances. Jeremy becomes increasingly intrigued by the enigmatic connection between himself and Will, especially after scrolling through the man's ominous text messages and unsettling photographs. The more Jeremy delves into Will's life, the more he becomes trapped in a web of unsettling events that threaten to consume him whole. Initially, Jeremy's discovery seems to hold little significance, merely a small misfortune that might warrant a phone call to Will, apologizing for taking the phone by mistake. However, with time, Jeremy becomes haunted by visions and nightmares – echoes of dark deeds and brutal encounters he has no memory of. These recurring hallucinations hint at something far more sinister lurking in the depths of Will's reality. As the days turn into weeks, Jeremy becomes desperate to uncover Will's true nature. His attempts at unraveling the puzzle surrounding Will's phone prove futile, with each clue leading him further astray. Meanwhile, the bar's patrons and Jeremy's life begin to disintegrate, mirroring the dark underbelly he's unwittingly invited into his life. A series of gruesome events, including unsolved murders and disappearances, further intensify the mystery, drawing Jeremy into the abyss of Will's dark world. Throughout the film, Anvari masterfully crafts a sense of foreboding, immersing the viewer in a world replete with unspoken terrors. The atmosphere becomes increasingly oppressive, much like the stifling heat of New Orleans. Armie Hammer's portrayal of Jeremy captures the desperation and panic that seeps into every decision he makes, rendering him an unreliable narrator. As Jeremy becomes lost in the labyrinth of Will's phone, the lines between reality and fantasy blur, heightening the feeling of uncertainty. With each passing episode, Will's enigmatic presence becomes more pronounced. Jeremy is drawn into a world where nothing is as it seems, and the truth he's searching for may be nothing more than a facade. It's at this point that Jeremy realizes just how little control he has over the events unfolding in his life, and just how deep Will's sinister network reaches. In the dark, nightmarish climax, Jeremy's sanity is pushed to its breaking point as the events surrounding Will's phone converge with Will's own descent into madness. Jeremy is confronted by the sinister force that has driven Will to commit heinous crimes, and in doing so, confronts his own darkest self. Throughout the film, the viewer is left wondering: What lies behind the sinister force fueling Will's crimes? Was it always in control, manipulating events from the shadows? Or was it Jeremy, driven mad by the phone, who's orchestrated the chaos? Wounds deftly avoids a clear answer, leaving the viewer immersed in its atmospheric dread, haunted by an unsettling realization – the horrors Jeremy faced may not be confined to the realm of fantasy, but lurk all around, in the unlikeliest of places.