A fairly successful writer, May (Brea Grant), is hoping for her next book to be green-lit and, after a meeting with her agent, drives home to her husband, Ted (Dhruv Uday Singh). After going to bed, May is awakened by a noise, only to spot a strange man in their garden. When she wakes Ted to tell him, he acts very calmly, advising that it must be the man who comes to their house every night and tries to kill them.
After a scuffle, which ends with the masked intruder out cold on the floor, the couple leave the house with May asking if they are just going to leave him there, to which Ted replies – very matter-of-factly – that he’s probably already gone, for May to turn around and see that the body has indeed disappeared.
The couple have a fight the next day as May tries to understand exactly what is going on and why Ted is so blasé about it all and Ted walks out, ignoring May’s attempts to contact him.
Each night from thereon in, the intruder returns, and May has to fight him off and kill him first with his body disappearing each time before she can either capture him or have the police turn up.
This continues as May tries to work out answers, find her husband, and keep her sanity. However, nothing is that easy for her as she struggles to get others to believe her; the police think it’s more important to question her about her relationship with her husband and her sister-in-law is acting strangely. When a past indiscretion surfaces, you may think that it’s pretty obvious where this is all going, but you’d be wrong.
Written by its main actor, Lucky is not what you may expect going in if you’ve seen the trailer. If you thought that Lucky would be a Happy Death Day-type of film, you’re wide of the mark. Apart from the returning visits of the intruder, life goes on as normal, and the puzzle is not easily solved.
Lucky is a film that defies simple genre classification. It is also not a film that will simply provide answers, with even the final scene denying the viewer any exact closure, leaving you to try and make up your own mind what it is about. It is this sometimes confusing structure that makes the movie somewhat of an enigma, and you’ll choose whether you like it or not by what you take away from it.
We will not spoil it for you by offering our perspective of what we think it is, but it would be fair to say that in the current climate of female empowerment, there are a few ways of looking at it. Sometimes almost artistic, others almost a breakdown of the slasher genre and the final girl trope, Lucky may push you to consider some of your own perspectives on gender, strength, and whether you should look after yourself or help others.
At only eighty minutes, it doesn’t outstay its welcome and if you’re looking for a more cerebral horror than usual, this should be right up your street.
