He Went That Way Review: Fictionalized True Crime Stranger Than Fiction
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
“This really (mostly) Happened” – says a disclaimer at the beginning of the film ‘He Went That Way.
Created by Jeffrey Darling (director) and Evan M. Wiener (writer), the movie is set in 1964, and follows an edgy, tense road-trip which goes wrong when Jim (Zachary Quinto), an entertainer traveling with his celebrity chimp Spanky (Phoenix Notary), offers a ride to a handsome young man called Bobby (Jacob Elordi), an unhinged criminal with a bad temper.
‘He Went That Way’ is of course a heavily fictionalized account that is based on the real life experience of Dave Pitts, who out of kindness had picked up a hitch-hiker, while traveling with his star chimpanzee, famous at the time for being the ‘only ice-skating chimpanzee in the world’, only to find out the young man was a murderer.
The film captures this bizarre road trip with a serial killer, a showbiz guy, and his celebrity monkey in a way that is largely discomforting for the viewer. Jacob Elordi brings an erratic, murderous energy to Bobby, giving the character an eccentric edge. You never quite know when Bobby will blow a fuse and kill someone, so full points to Elordi for embodying a young, restless, temperamental killer in ‘He Went That Way‘.
It was Zachary Quinto as Jim who felt unreliable and unconvincing through the film, his ‘good guy caught in a bad situation’ act rarely feeling right. In-fact, at the beginning of ‘He Went That Way’, when Jim offers the handsome Bobby a ride, you wonder if he has some ulterior motive to do so. He does. He just wants some company for a painfully long drive, so why not help out a hitchhiker in need? Except, Quinto gives off more of a creepy killer vibe initially. Or maybe it’s just how it seemed to me.
Honestly, I just wanted to see more of Spanky the chimp, who is criminally underutilized throughout the runtime. That said, Zachary Quinto deserves praise for his easy, endearing onscreen chemistry with the chimp. On the other hand, the rapidly weird dynamic that develops between Jim and Bobby during the road trip was just… well, odd. In some ways, this of course is also a thriller, because there’s suspense over what will happen to Jim and Spanky. Will they survive the trip or become the next victims of the serial killer?
Give this film a try only if the premise sounds interesting to you.
Rating: 6.5 on 10. Watch ‘He Went That Way’ on Netflix.
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Also Read: Sirens Netflix Series Review (Short Audio Version below)
