Coventry Admittedly I didn't have high hopes for liking "Mercy", and this was based on a couple of indicators. The plot is adapted from a largely unknown short story by Stephen King (= the author is overrated and most of his short stories are unimpressive) and the lead character is a 10-year-old kid whose first line in the film is: "my grandmother has always been my best friend." But it turned out to be better than I expected, particularly thanks to a series of weird and inexplicable story aspects and a surprisingly sinister atmosphere throughout. Single mom Rebecca (beautiful Frances O'Conner of "The Missing") is forced to move back to her remote parental house, along with her two teenage sons, because her mother requires constant care during her recovery of a stroke. There always circulated strange and morbid stories about grandma Mercy. When she was a beautiful 20-year-old woman, she couldn't get children and this nearly drove her insane. Suddenly one day, after mysteriously having vanished over the hills, she's expecting triplets! Shortly after the babies were born her husband died, supposedly in a freak accident where he split his own head in two with an axe (!) and two of her three children are mentally unstable. Now, at the end of her life, grandma Mercy still seems to be possessed with an evil entity. Is this "Hastur", who she keeps driveling about, the demon who impregnated her and what impact does the bloodline have on her grandson George? It's safe to state that "Mercy" is better and more effective in raising eerie topics than at answering vital plot questions and ensuring continuity. The entire climax is a mess and I, for one, didn't really understood what was going on. Some things are spooky but don't make the slightest bit of sense, like George talking to a cute but dead girl from his neighborhood or Dylan McDermott patiently waiting for something to happen. Shirley Knight, as grandma Mercy, is more dead than alive for most of the film's running time, so it would have been so much easier if the family opted for euthanasia.

TheManInOil There are some really talented actors in this movie. It's a shame to see them waste their time (although there's no sign of any effort) on this. It's not that it had no potential. Based on a Stephen King story, it shares a lot of basic elements with The Shining. Gifted boy with imaginary friend from a family that are sensitive to other-worldly/paranormal things in peril. Senility replaces alcoholism as the boogey-man in the subtext, but there are a lot of thematic and plot similarities.The trouble is that this movie was so poorly done. The writing wasn't great, the direction/editing is awful. Quite often it seems more like people doing a blocking rehearsal than an actual take. It's impossible to feel involved in what's going on. Some of the dialogue is so bad that it's easy to understand why everyone seems non-committal - there is no way to deliver those lines well.The kid playing the lead makes an honest effort, and this film shouldn't be held against him, but it's a black mark on the filmography of everyone else involved.

Tss5078 I guess it was only a matter of time until someone put little Carl (Chandler Riggs) from the Walking Dead in a movie. Mercy is that film, and it is based on a short story by Stephen King. There is a reason this was a short story, there wasn't enough to make an entire book out of it, so what made them thing there was enough for a full length film? Rebecca, George, & Buddy are going to spend time living with their grandmother at her cabin in the woods. She is a sick old woman and it's only a matter of time, but she isn't a candidate for the nursing home, because she is psychotic. While caring for the old woman, George (Riggs) finds some mysterious occult stuff, that lead him to believe his grandmother isn't psychotic, but possessed. This film is everything that is wrong with the Horror movies of today, because it's not scary, different, or even all that interesting, it's more stupid than anything else. For most of the movie, nothing happens, except for this kid walking around testing his theory, but what does it matter, the old woman is going to be dead soon anyway right? Chandler Riggs stars and I really don't care for him as an actor. I realize he's just a kid, but Riggs is always playing some whiny loner, looking for help. Some people might find it cute or endearing, to me it's just annoying, especially in a film where he's the lead. The rest of the cast was underutilized, especially Super 8's, Joel Courtney, who is a terrific young talent, I would have liked to see more of. Mercy is written by the master of horror and stars two of TV's top young stars, but it was a story that never developed into anything, and is buried in some massive Stephen King short story anthology. This is not the kind of story that should have ever been turned into a film. I don't say it much, but this time I really believe that Mercy was just a waste of 90 minutes that I will never get back.

Nicole of ArchonCinemaReviews.com Mercy is a horror story that plays on typical human fears with a twist, In quintessential Stephen King fashion.Matt Greenberg adapts King's short story Gramma into the screenplay for the horror film Mercy.George is the undeniable favorite grandson to his grandmother Mercy. His mother along with his brother must act as caretaker when Mercy unexpectedly is stricken ill and requires constant care. Inexplicably odd and mysterious occurrences seem to revolve around his grandmother and George rushes to save her.As a horror fanatic, Stephen King represents the worst aspect of horror. I find his writings and stories to be horridly cliché exasperated by the fact that King so desperately tries to twist and surprise his readers when the ending can be seen a mile away.Interestingly, Mercy is a well paced suspenseful horror in which few stereotypical scares are used until the final reveal. The horror lies in the unveiling of truth through ominous and foreboding layers and well utilized complementary music. Shirley Knight is incredibly creepy as Mercy, the potentially possessed grandmother. The children and characters themselves are smarter than most adults in horror movies.Chandler Riggs is the main character George, and significantly younger in this film than he is on the Walking Dead. This leads me to assume that the film sat shelves for some time before being made available. Mercy doesn't really add anything new to the genre which is probably the explanation but all in all, it is not a terrible horror movie.For more FULL reviews of all the RECENT releases, please check out our WEBSITE.