In modern day America, a character known simply by the name of Drew must frequently make an agonising decision as each day he swaps bodies with another human, taking their voice, memories and flesh, in order to preserve his rapidly decaying body. The title “Lifechanger” does not only literally refer to the fact that our chaotic character must change lives, but in doing so, dramatically changes the person’s life of whose body he takes.
Rising filmmaker Justin McConnell (director of the one-take thriller Broken Mile) brings us one of his most ambitious projects to date. Lifechanger is a gruesome horror film with traditional practical effects, but it goes much deeper than that and explores romance, guilt and inner turmoil to devastating effect. From the opening scene, we are thrust into Drew’s disorderly lifestyle when greeted with his latest body waking up next to the rotten, drained body of a young woman. As his inner thoughts are conveyed as she sombrely disposes of the corpse, the film wonderfully captures a classic noir feel which is elevated with some of its use of low light, dark blue-coated exposition scenes. Throughout the story, Drew changes bodies on multiple occasions as he looks to get closer to Julia (Lora Burke), a woman who he has become infatuated with and, whilst in various bodies, has been incredibly close to yet unable to share his harrowing secret.
As with any body swap genre film such as this, each actor who portrays the next body in sequence must keep the pacing and deep emotional root of our main character intact, and that is most definitely the case with the cast that McConnell expertly assembled. As Drew moves between lives, he picks up traits of the person who he has replaced, changing him on a much deeper personal level. His interactions with Julia are much more profound as the story reaches its third act culminating in a horrific but tragic climax. At approximately 80 minutes long, the narrative could have done with being slightly longer in order to intensely explore a lot more of each victim’s background, adding another emotional level. Either that, or maybe one less transformation should have occurred. That, along with the somewhat choppy editing at points, does make it feel slightly disjointed in places.
Lifechanger is a polished experience in terms of the way the camera is utilised to convey sentiments and is a welcome addition to this rather unique film. Practical effects (always welcome in modern horror) keep tales such as this one grounded in reality and help McConnell truly make the audience feel for the “monster” as well as Julia.
As the film progresses, not only does the character of Drew grow as he has to commit a devastating crime that he has always deemed necessary, but the audience grows with him. Moral dilemmas are at the heart of the tale of tragedy and realisation that sometimes getting close to the thing we want the most may cause the most harm. It is clear that our screenwriter has been touched by other tales of sadistic but grounded killers while also taking a more human approach for our monster.
After experiencing Lifechanger, the audience will feel changed on an emotional level. Solid performances from our core cast and unique approach to body horror cements Justin McConnell as a talented up and coming filmmaker that could do wonders for independent horror, although its short runtime might leave viewers wanting more, which in itself is what Drew truly wanted in life.
LIFECHANGER / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: JUSTIN McCONNELL / SCREENPLAY: JUSTIN McCONNELL / STARRING: LORA BURKE, JACK FOLEY, ELITSA BAKO / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
