Villains focuses on Mickey and Jules - played by Bill Skarsgard and Maika Monroe, respectively - a young criminal couple whose car breaks down after they rob a convenience store. Needing a new set of wheels as soon as possible, they walk to a nearby mansion and break in, attempting to grab the keys to one of the owner’s cars. When the owners, a couple named George and Gloria - played by Jeffrey Donovan and Kyra Sedgwick, respectively - return home, Mickey and Jules attempt to make off with their car, but soon find the tables turned on them in a way they could have never imagined.
The film mainly takes place in one setting and has a relatively small cast, something which can be to a film’s detriment as it has to find intriguing ways to keep its premise going for a 90 minute movie. Though Villains does work quite well, and it’s at its best when all four of its main leads are together. Both of the couples are very believable together, and all four actors have some really solid chemistry with one another. To see these four issue over-the-top vicious threats, insults, and condescending remarks to one another becomes quite fun to watch.
There are moments where the film decides to split these characters apart as a way to increase the tension, and that’s when the movie falters a bit. The reason these couples work so well together is the fact that one of them is much more eccentric, while the other is more level-headed. However, everyone still maintains an incredibly high energy and it allows them to all play off one another really nicely.
There’s a point in the movie, for example, where Mickey and Gloria - the more eccentric halves - are placed together, and it doesn’t really work so well. One will be left to say and do whatever it is they wish, and there’s no one with a clearer head to keep them in check, leaving the other to not really know how to react. Moments such as these feel more like they ramble on in unfunny tangents rather than really induce a laugh or evoke a thrill from the audience. It’s two people who don’t really know how to properly react to one another not really knowing how to keep the scene going but attempt to do so anyway.
Sequences such as these don’t work, nor does the subplot involving Sweetiepie - played by Blake Baumgartner - the silent daughter of George and Gloria who the couple for some reason leave chained up in their basement. It’s implied in several moments that there’s more to this character than being just an innocent girl wrongly chained in the basement, and despite the movie seemingly building up towards something, it ultimately goes nowhere with it.
And her motivations remain unclear, as she works alongside certain characters in one scene, then works against them with no rhyme or reason, creating extra conflict simply when the screenplay needed more conflict to happen. She feels more like an object in this film than an actual person, which is a bit frustrating, considering the fact that she’s confined in the basement is one of the film’s major plot points. Yet, the film doesn’t flesh her story out as well as it does for the other main characters.
Still, this movie is a lot of fun, mainly for a lot of the cat-and-mouse play between the two couples. While it feels at times like the stakes could have been raised further in certain instances and gone more over-the-top, the back-and-forth that is witnessed here does work. There are a lot of great moments that build up some great tension, and there are a lot of really solid laughs, as all four of these characters balance each other out quite well.
And the movie does a really solid job allowing the audience to still care, despite the movie being about two petty criminals who engaged in armed robbery. While Mickey and Jules remain consistent with their personalities, the way they react to certain things, such as seeing Sweetiepie locked up in the basement, establishes that while they’re not exactly good people, they still have a humane side to them. Moments like this, as well as one really great moment at the beginning of the film that establishes just how much they really care for one another, allow the audience to connect with them and have two people to root for, making it easier to stick around even when the movie goes off-track at times.
Villains is by no means a perfect movie, but for what it is, it’s still a lot of fun. While it could have definitely taken things into more deranged territory than it did, the moments that are ultimately shown here work quite well. It provides a lot of laughs, thanks to the great chemistry of its four leads, and provides enough cat-and-mouse thrills that build up some great tension and make this a solid horror-comedy.
Recommendation: Watch It
Comments