Girl on the Third Floor is a gooey, gloppy and gory horror with a feminist touch
It’s not often that you see horror filmmakers looking to make a name for themselves dig down into the horror genre’s roots to pick apart its usual archetypal characters and themes with the same level of seriousness that director Travis Stevens does in his full-length feature debut, Girl on the Third Floor.
The film stars MMA fighter and former WWE wrestler, C.M. Punk, as Don Koch, who moves to a newly purchased property to renovate it before his pregnant wife, Liz, joins him at a later date. While renovating, Don notices that the house is responding to his presence in completely unusual ways and that the renovation may not only take a toll on his sanity, but his own life. To make matters worse, a strange girl seems to be living secretly within his new home.
Girl on the Third Floor (GOTTF) has all the makings of a cult horror hit and more: a creepy suburban house with a dark past, gorgeously gooey practical effects that will make any gore hound’s eyes pop, and two well-developed main characters with realistic flaws. C.M. Punk gives a fine performance as the conflicted Don, struggling to cope with his own dark past and several vices that hinder him from having a better relationship with his wife. The real star of the show, however, is the house, with all of its semen leaking out of the walls, sinks and ceilings. Yea, you read that right… semen, and lots of it.
The house in GOTTF is incredible because it is also one of the biggest and best examples of ingenious effects, and how to use gross-out tactics as a storytelling tool, not as a gimmick. The semen isn’t just all over the place to serve as Stevens’s immature attempt at grossing people out. No, it’s there to give clues as to the house’s history, and more specifically what type of unsavory activities occurred in its past. Its interior is also downright eerie, much of this due to excellently focused camera work that makes use of tight rooms and narrow hallways. This is especially evident when Don wanders its darkest corners in the nighttime, his body tired and his mind most susceptible to its carnal influences.
The hidden gem, sticking out amidst all of the house’s carnal traps and grotesque trickery, is Liz Koch (Trieste Kelly Dunn), one of the strongest female characters in a horror film as of late. Liz doesn’t show up prominently in the film until about the last quarter and a half of the film. By the time she does, shit has already hit the fan, and the house has made its evil presence well known to viewers, giving her the biggest challenge of all. Her appearance is also noteworthy when the true themes of the film start becoming more evident, with issues of intimacy, loyalty and family being examined in quite refreshing ways throughout Liz’s marital struggles and her taking on the house.
Liz not only reveals herself as capable of taking control of her horrific situation, but she also powers through any fears or insecurities she may have had about potentially being a single mother and what that entails. Perhaps Stevens’s biggest success isn’t the nasty practical effects wizardry that he and his effects artists have concocted, but rather the emotional pull of a woman’s struggle to rectify the mistakes of her husband and reclaim her life as her own.
The biggest complaint I have about GOTTF is the lack of diverse characters within the story. The only person of color is a mutual friend of Liz and Don’s, Milo, who becomes involved later into the film. Milo’s appearance also reveals some interesting tension between himself and Don, which is kind of wasted due to his swift exit. Milo is the first death of the film, reinforcing the whole “African American being the first to die in a horror film” trope that more and more horror filmmakers drift away from nowadays.
VERDICT: GOTTF is well worth watching for fans of the horror genre who are tired of the mindless character archetypes they see in every other Conjuring or possession flick, but who aren’t turned off by some gruesome practical effects. Still, don’t expect peak diversity in this one.
Girl on the Third Floor is now available on Blu-Ray/DVD and for streaming on Amazon Video and Google Play.
