‘The A-Frame’ Raises Interesting Questions, But The Answers Aren’t All There: A Review

What is The A-Frame About?

The A-Frame was written and directed by Calvin Lee Reeder. Dana Namerode stars as Donna, and Johnny Whitworth is Sam. Also appearing in prominent roles are Nik Dodani and Laketa Caston.

The A-Frame Review

The A-Frame begins with an interesting premise, and that goes a long way in keeping the movie entertaining throughout. The story never gets too deep into the specifics of the quantum dislocator (the A-Frame) and what it’s really doing, but the explanations we do get bring up a bunch of fun questions. Where are the molecules going when they’re transported? If the cancer is no longer in the body, where did it go? What happens if something goes wrong? Is the A-Frame actually a doorway? There’s a cosmic horror layer to the questions that arise. Sadly, most of the more intriguing cosmic-horror questions are left unanswered. But, there’s still a lot of good in the film.

The best parts of The A-Frame are its visuals. Specifically, I thoroughly enjoyed the visual effects used whenever the quantum dislocator is used. Using budget-friendly means, the visuals used during these moments imply the idea of overlapping parallel dimensions in an effective way. The overlaying and flashing of images even seeps into other areas of the movie, suggesting that the A-Frame is having unintended lasting effects on its subjects.

There are also some fun creature effects and gallons of goop in the later parts of the movie. These more horror-forward moments are brief, but by being short-lived they make bigger impacts. Overall, The A-Frame is much more of a dramatic thriller than a horror movie, but the slight body-horror additions are a nice touch. They’re not to the level of something like The Fly (1986), but they definitely point in that general direction. Just at a much smaller scale.

On the less-good side, the movie has trouble building strong character moments. Donna has a friend, Rishi, and they share a scene that gets close to being emotional, but there’s no real follow-through. Everyone else Donna interacts with, even Sam, builds up even less emotion. Since the movie focuses so heavily on plot and drama over horror, there needed to be a lot more attention paid to the characters and their conflicts. All of the information is delivered to us, but there’s little feeling behind most of it. Even when there are betrayals and revelations, it all falls a bit flat.

There are also a few too many dead ends in the story. Someone goes missing and Sam is questioned, but that plot thread goes nowhere. Donna has a couple of friends that she sees occasionally, but they’re just there to give Donna strange looks and ask her how she’s doing, which we feel more effectively in her moments alone. There are scenes like these spread throughout the film, and they all feel non-committal. Like there were ideas to develop the story further, but ultimately those ideas were scrapped.

In the end, the biggest issue in The A-Frame is a lack of solid focus. It’s ostensibly about a scientist experimenting with alternate dimensions and the desperate woman he’s wrangled into his project, but the movie is really about dealing with a serious illness. It’s like the movie doesn’t even realize that it’s actually about the emotions of dealing with cancer until the very end. That, sadly, leads to an ending that lacks the conflict needed for a big, impactful culmination of the plot. It’s not bad, it’s just too abrupt and simple. There’s some goop and creature effects though, and that helps.

Rating and Recommendation

Further Reading

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