Movie Review: Penny Dreadful

I first learned about 8 films to die for when I seen them lined next to each other at Blockbuster. However every time I went in to try and get my hands of one of these supposedly 'scary' flicks, they were all out. (One of the films even uses dead bodies; this is enough to make a horror film guru go gaga. It's a must have collection.)
 
So day in and day out after hearing sold out, sold out, I finally got my hands on the least 'cool' looking one. Penny Dreadful.
 
The movie starts off pretty much how I would expect a hitchhiker movie to start out. (In a car).
Penny is in the car with her therapist. Penny is deathly afraid of cars because of an accident that occurred when she was a child. However even after the years that have passed, the fear of being in a car has never diminished. Her therapist is taking her for a ride to get her to get rid of this fear. The therapist thinks helping Penny face her fears, will eliminate her fear of cars, and driving.

How can I put this? Hmm umm, yeah, Penny's got some problems.

There are points in the movie where she is hyperventilating and throwing up because she is 'so scared' of being in the car. It was a bit hard to swallow, but relatively it made sense for the type of person she was.

Now with that out of the way, her idiot therapist is driving along not really paying attention (which I found odd seeing how she is supposed to be helping this girl get over her fears), la da da, and wham. She hits a hitchhiker. Oh but he's okay, don't worry about it.

Next the idiot therapist gives the hitchhiker a ride; to some desolate forest because she feels guilty. At this time you already know that the 'horror' is about to begin. This therapist deserves a raise! I'm being sarcastic. Poor Penny, who fears cars is now in a life threatening situation. Yeah, she's going to step into a car again after this session.

Anyhow, the hitchhiker isn't saying a word; he is silent for the entire ride, even when he is asked questions. I'm still confused about why she didn't just pull over and throw the freak out.

Will the hitchhiker stab her in the back forcing Penny to face her fears and drive the car by herself? Will he rape and kill them, maybe eat them?

Nah, but even though he gets out of the car in the middle of the forest you already are saying to yourself, 'Penny's never going to get in a car again'.
 
Oh but when the hitchhiker gets out of the car, pretty little Penny has to waste time by freaking out AFTER he is gone. Pretty strange how she was able to hold her composure and not freak out while he was in the car. She freaks out so bad that the therapist has to stop the car and let her out to throw up.
Penny what's that? Uh-oh the hitchhiker shoved a metal rod into the tire. Stupid therapist goes and rips it out, allowing the air to pour out even faster.

So while the therapist is yelling at Penny to get into the car so they can ride the tire till it blows out, Penny sits there freaking out even more, crying like a wuss, and the tire growing smaller by each passing moment. At this moment you sort of wish this idiot girl would get killed. Her fight for survival is pathetic, and at this moment you realize just how weak Penny is.

The tire eventually blows and now the two are stranded, while the hitchhiker is still out there... somewhere.
 
Trying to get a signal for help the therapist takes off, and leaves poor Penny all by herself. Penny the weak girl she is, decides to pop some pills to make her sleep through the whole ordeal. (Yes it's always smart to take sleep-inducing drugs while there is a psycho roaming about the woods)

So now she goes into her own little panic attack, and you start to get a little freaked at this point. What's going to happen to Penny? Will she have to drive this car on out of the woods alone?

Now wouldn't that be grand? If Penny could just put the keys in the ignition and drive away. No such luck Penny wakes up in the car to discover that someone has pinned the car in between 2 trees making it impossible for her to even open the windows to crawl out, or to move the car.

Just when you think things are about to get really good, they don't.

Penny cries and whines, and yells for help while barely even making an effort to break the windshield. Then she takes more pills to fall asleep.

This is where things get extremely boring, it seems that every time the hitchhiker attacks the car or scares her, she huddles into a ball and takes more and more pills to 'sleep' through it. Her fight for survival again proves to be so pathetic that you actually are hoping the poor thing would just eat the whole bottle of sleeping pills and do herself in. Besides she will run out of food soon anyways, and starve to death.

Penny is really so pathetic that you just sit back wondering when she is going to either get killed or commit suicide. There is no way this whinny little brat is going to find a way to free herself of this psycho. You also wonder, when the heck she is just going to lose it and not care if she lives or dies, and when she is going to grow some courage to face this hitchhiker.

Oh yeah, she does and she calls him out, and finally your saying 'Yay Penny'; then he cuts off her toe. Pills, she needs her pills now, She wants to go to sleep again, and she's scared! God she is such an idiot.
So the duration of the film is basically some hitchhiker where you never really get a good look at his face till the end. Is he really a hitchhiker, or is he some form of her imagination?

Penny Dreadful has some suspenseful moments, but they fade fast because Penny takes pills thinking everything will just go away. You are stuck sometimes wondering if Penny is having a dream, hallucinating from the pills, or if it's something really occurring.

There are many times during the film where you will be yawning. The entire movie takes place in a parked car, so nothing really changes.

Most of the film is shot in the dark so you sort of struggle to see what the heck is going on, and it gets boring pretty fast.

Overall-
 
This film is a bust... it has some good parts, but for the most part the majority of it grows boring and tedious.