‘Capsules’ Review – An Interesting Premise Undercut By An Underdeveloped Narrative

Directed By: Luke Momo

Starring: Caroline Potter Shriver, Marcus Fahey, Kate Pittard

Plot Summary: Four chem students are bored after a cram session. Naturally, to relieve the boredom, they take some mysterious pills that were found on a creepy old man on the street. What could possibly go wrong? After taking the custom-made drug, they discover that you must keep taking them, lest they die.

A good drug-trip horror movie is always a lot of fun, which is why Capsules seems like a movie that should be on our radar. To give the director some credit, it is admirable to tackle something so ambitious in your first feature length film. Instead of just making a body count film to coast off the popularity of Scream VI, director Luke Momo decided to give us something that is unexpected and, from the outset, totally unpredictable. Think Flatliners, only for the super jaded TikTok generation.

That is an interesting blueprint for a horror movie. Sadly though, what could have been an interesting premise is wasted on what boils down to a first draft effort. One of the major stumbling blocks is baked right into the narrative. Why would four chemistry majors risk taking unknown pills. Especially considering they got them off of an old geezer who looks like a bath salt zombie?

It’s almost like Momo has already written himself in a corner, and therefore it makes it harder to side with characters that willingly put themselves into such an avoidable situation. It’s frustrating because with a simple rewrite this could have been easily fixed. Like, maybe the pills were from a dealer, and they happened to be laced with something? Also, it seems to be heavily implied that these pills have an extraterrestrial origin – one character stresses this a few times. That is a nice twist, sure. But again, nothing is done with it.

The characters themselves are avatars for what older people think Gen Z are all about. They are unlikable and never feel like they are real and compelling people. It’s extremely hard to invest in the journey when you have that kind of barrier. This isn’t impossible though, and Bodies Bodies Bodies proves that you can have a compelling narrative featuring snotty shitbags. The reason why is because of the sharp satire that smooths this problem out. This is baffling when you have a premise that seems rife for commentary. This would have fixed a lot of issues and added a layer of subtext that would have propped up the film greatly. As it stands now, the characters and the plot go through the motions, but it feels like big chunks of plot are missing. Everyone goes from being bored at home to cutting open a dude with an alarming ease.

It does not feel good to dwell on bad acting, but there is no getting around the uneven performances which range from good to very misguided. You cannot blame the actors entirely, though. After all, they are only as good as the material they are afforded. Not to mention, the mark of a good director is being able to not only get a good performance but to cast people with natural charm and chemistry. It’s a filmmaker’s job to make sure his actors are all on the same page in terms of style and range.

That’s not to suggest that the movie is mindless, and it is clear that a lot of care went into the look and mood of the film. Momo is able to inject this movie with a lot of great tension and a lingering dread that always keep you off-balance. Capsules is at least an interesting first stab at the horror genre. It just misses the mark with a severely underbaked screenplay and lackluster performances.

Capsules is currently available On Demand courtesy of Cranked Up Films. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUDl1673TzI]