WAZ not Was
When the pregnant girlfriend of a gang leader is found dead, electrocuted and with what looks like "wAz" cut in to her belly is found detective Eddie Argo (Stellan Skarsgard) and rookie Helen Westcott (Melissa George). As one murder grows to a second and then a third the troubled Argo and Westcott try to make sense of things as it appears that these murders come with a twist where the victim gets an option to die themselves or let a loved one die and the "wAz" is part of a bigger equation by someone who has probably been a victim themselves.
Disengaging myself from the movie "WAZ" and thinking purely about the storyline to the movie and there is a lot to love. Here is this curious idea of a killer whose victims are part of an equation and when the killer picks a victim he gives them the choice of dying or letting a loved one die. So by simple logic this equation seems to be some sort of exploration of love. It is a decent basic idea and thankfully the movie is written and directed in such a way that we have the mystery of who the killer is keeping us involved.
But for me Tom Shankland's direction feels like it is trying too hard to be raw and gritty with a floaty camera which can't stay till as it observes someone saying something, swaying slowly in and around before dropping back out as if the camera was on a drone. Combine that with scene after scene feeling unnaturally poorly lit whilst the actors snarl out their characters makes it feel quite simply created and not in a good way as it certainly struggled to entertain me with this faux rawness.
What this all boils down to is that when it comes to "WAZ" I like the storyline and the ideas involved in it. But the final product didn't work for me and all the parts of it from the acting to the look feels forced. Despite this the whole mystery of the killings kept me going to the end even when I despaired at the use of a floating camera during close up work.
