Significant Other (Mini-Review)

Significant Other is a science fiction horror movie centering around a couple. Harry decides to take Ruth, his girlfriend, out on a hiking trip. The plan is for them to hike for a few days on a trail Harry is very familiar with. Ruth doesn't like hiking but is enduring it because she loves Harry. Unfortunately an alien ship had landed in the woods shortly before the couple arrived. Their camping trip goes from peaceful to tense to horrific. Significant Other was released on Paramount+ in 2022. It was directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen. It stars Maika Monroe, Jake Lacy, and Matthew Yang King.

At first this movie was good and I enjoyed the slow buildup. But at a certain point the movie starts to juggle more themes and subplots than it knows what to do with. This gives Significant Other a tone that is just all over the place. When the villain discovers love it's comedic but the movie plays those scenes as extremely serious. There is light hearted dialogue but the music is there to remind the viewer what they are meant to feel. Some movies can handle shifts in genre but this isn't one of those success stories. From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) is a great example of a movie which switched genres and is better because of it.

Ray and Vivian are a couple that Ruth runs into. As the movie's title is Significant Other I expected to spend a little bit of time with them. We already know that Harry wants marriage while Ruth fears tying herself down for the rest of her life. She loves him and doesn't feel that they have to get married to prove their love. As someone who can't get married due to losing SSI if I do, I agree with this sentiment. We also know that those two ways of looking at love causes tensions for the couple. So I was expecting Ray and Vivian's relationship to contrast Ruth and Harry's. But they are killed soon after finding Ruth so viewers never learn that much about them.

Even though the movie is called Significant Other and focuses on a young couple, it doesn't feel like that theme was ever properly explored. Ruth fears that one day Harry will change and she won't love him anymore. But instead of him slowly changing due to the alien taking over, his character is replaced by an alien who has taken over his identity. Then that alien finds love and is overtaken by the emotion. But instead of exploring that subplot Ruth tries killing him.

One good thing about the movie is that the alien concept is neat. It is a terrifying, unkillable presence throughout the film. At first it kills and takes a deer's identity. That deer is then seen at night by Ruth which scares her. Then when the alien reveals itself, viewers are treated to a lovely show of gore. Light gore but at least it's there. It's also nice seeing how Ruth keeps trying to outmaneuver the alien and kill him multiple times. This makes the alien even more terrifying as you see how much it can survive.

I would recommend Significant Other to those looking for a decent horror movie. I would also recommend Significant Other to those looking for a decent science fiction movie.