Indie Slice of Life Horror Offers Little Sweet Relief (CFF) in Meandering Story

Title: Sweet Relief

First Non-Festival Release: TBD

Director: Nick Verdi

Writer: Nick Verdi

Runtime: 87 Minutes

Starring: Alisa Leigh, B.R. Yeager, Adam Michael Kozak

Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here

This film’s review was written after its screening at the Chattanooga Film Festival in 2024.

Social media challenges have cast the ire of elders since sites like Youtube, Facebook, and TikTok have gained and lost popularity over the years. There remains a palpable fear over the threatening influence that these platforms can have on impressionable minds. For every ALS Ice Bucket challenge, there is a Momo challenge. Sweet Relief dives into the meat of this fear.

The ‘Sweet Relief’ internet challenge is sweeping the nation, but particularly affects the residents of a small New England town. Hannah (Lucie Rosenfield) leads her friends in posting a challenge video, where they list off the people they would choose to die. This challenge terrifies her mother who takes to berating her son Nathan (Adam Michael Kozak) over his blasé attitude towards it who, in turn, relays his frustrations to his girlfriend, Jess (Alisa Leigh). All the while, a child serial killer posing as a police office (B.R. Yeager) stalks the town in search of victims. As Sweet Relief crescendos, these three stories intersect in the most violent of manners.

Small-town mumbelegore film Sweet Relief attempts to string together commentary on social media and the dissatisfaction of youth.

Sweeping statements about the rise of social media come and go in the horror genre, and Sweet Relief is no different. Throughout its runtime, Sweet Relief offers many perspectives from its large cast on how social media can ruin lives. From conspiracy obsessed parents to easily impressionable children, there is a case to be made about the darkness of social media reach. It might be played out, but it’s hard to deny the ever-present hold that social media does have on life, and Sweet Relief tries to find its niche in representing those who live outside of the city limits of population centers. Unfortunately, the challenge itself is corny and doesn’t do a great job of making a mark on the audience when compared to real-life challenges that do result in violence.

A glut of characters and plot threads make Sweet Relief a difficult film to get through, as it never seems to have much direction. With the Sweet Relief internet challenge barreling through their town like a storm, it makes sense to focus on a variety of characters and their reactions to the maelstrom of violence. Some are victims, a few perpetrate, and others investigate. The problem with Sweet Relief is that little goes into making these characters feel more than one-dimensional bodies to further the story. Little is revealed about each of them as they all tend to blend together in an overwhelming whirlwind of similarities. 

Obviously, in this type of slice-of-life film, it is expected for the dialogue to resemble something more true-to-life rather than what is needed to drive the plot along. Sweet Relief does not give the audience any relief from the most inane, over-stammered conversations that feel painfully forced and oddly contrived. An over-reliance on repetitive, expletive-laden arguments give some level of authenticity to the story but ruins it by giving every character the same quirk of relying on the word “fuck.” Most of the dialogue slows the progression of the film and halts any sense of tension or horror in a story that would otherwise do so.

That being said, there is a nasty undercurrent of nihilism that serves Sweet Relief well. Its brightly photographed small town feels real and lived-in, giving the setting an Everytown sort of aesthetic. The cast of characters, while underbaked, feel real enough to where one can easily make connections with people from their own life. Sweet Relief shows just how mundane the terrors of life can be with this bumbling group of small-minded townspeople.

This tonally offbeat indie horror may work for some but will likely alienate many horror fans for its jarring attempts at dissecting the intersection of social media, small-town life, and horror. Empty characters, irritating dialogue, and a lack of story combine to create a maddeningly interminable experience. Perhaps, the most indicting element of Sweet Relief, however, is its inability to hold a modicum of suspense. The idea of juxtaposing visceral horror against the bland backdrop of quiet rural American life is interesting, and it is a shame that Sweet Relief doesn’t capitalize fully on it.

Overall Score? 3/10