One of the best things about the horror genre is its ability to allow women to be in the spotlight as the “hero.” Yes, any other genre of film can offer the same, but I feel like horror was the more prominent genre that really pushed for “girl power” before the others. Whether it’s a classic teen every-girl who finds her strength such as Sydney from Scream, an intelligent survivalist like Ripley from Alien, or even a girl who is cursed/gifted with powers beyond comprehension such as Carrie, the ways a woman in horror can become powerful are numerous.

Wild Eyed and Wicked continues the tradition of having an empowered woman as the lead and attempts to put a fresh new spin on how it’s done. Lily Pierce, played by Molly Kunz (Widows, The Wolf and the Lion), is haunted by a medieval creature that has tormented her family for generations.  After deciding to fight, she must seek out her estranged father who is a disgraced history professor, played by Michael X. Sommers (Sorry to Bother You, The Matrix Resurrections) to learn how to battle the supernatural monsters from an era of armor-clad knights while dealing with both her generational trauma and her own personal trauma of witnessing her mothers suicide.

Wild Eyed and Wicked was directed and written by Gordon Shoemaker Foxwood in his feature-length debut.   He does show promise in this film, but I do believe this could have worked better as a short film like the rest of his filmography.  Most of the problems with the film could have been fixed with a higher budget which isn’t the fault of the filmmaker.

I’ll be upfront, if you don’t like slow burn horror, this isn’t for you. Wild Eyed and Wicked definitely falls into the category of a slow, just barely creepy buildup to the climax of the film. This formula often works well, such as The Eye, or The Witch. And while I definitely see what they were trying to do with this one, there were times when the pacing was too slow, even for those who appreciate that sort of thing. I’ll give it this, the scenery and lighting are oftentimes beautiful in this film. But there was perhaps a combination of too much of that between some already very dialogue heavy scenes, resulting most of the film feeling like a family drama rather than a horror.

I wish I can say the dialogue made up for some of these faults, but it unfortunately was inconsistent. There were times the dialogue felt exactly like a real conversation, and it was excellent. I particularly liked the early interactions with Lily and her girlfriend Willow (Claire Saunders) But other times…definitely a bit awkward. I can definitely say that the actors helped sell even much of the more stilted dialogue. I genuinely enjoyed this entire cast, particularly the lead Molly Kunz. Especially, I’d like to give her and the writing a shout out for her betrayal of a gay lead that wasn’t a caricature.

Here’s where I’m sure my opinion will differ from most. I actually really enjoyed the medieval themes in this movie. I’m sure by the climax of the film it would be considered cheesy by many, but at least it was the part that made this movie stand out from so many other horrors featuring empowered female leads. Or maybe I’m just a huge fan of female knights, I’m not sure. I’ll also add that I appreciated that the true nature of Lily’s family curse/nemesis being left ambiguous to how much of it exists in reality.

While Wild Eyed And Wicked is unfortunately riddled with flaws, at least I can say an attempt was made to breathe some fresh air into the horror genre. My takeaway is that there are always going to be new interesting ways to represent women in horror, or even media in general. I just hope that these inspired new ideas in the future can have the execution they need to be better appreciated.