Custom – Movie Review (2/5)

CUSTOM (2024) is a psychological horror movie that had much more potential than this end result shows. Mostly, the story gets somewhat lost while we’re getting yet another scene with scantily clad characters. Less of that and more of a focus on the fascinating plot, and I would be much happier with it. Read our full Custom movie review here!

CUSTOM (2024) is a new horror movie with equal parts psychological horror and steamy, undressed scenes. Unfortunately, the latter takes up both too much time and far too much of the storytelling focus. At its core, this is a terrifying and fascinating horror movie, which could have been so much better than it is.

Of course, this is just my opinion. Admittedly, I tend to get much more irritated and annoyed with a movie that is full of potential yet doesn’t deliver on its promise. The runtime is just 76 minutes, but it felt longer, which is never a good sign.

Continue reading our 2024 Custom movie review below.

A different kind of entrepreneurs

With Custom, we meet a pair of struggling arthouse filmmakers. Okay, they’re making steamy “home videos”, so they are essentially pornographers, but working on their own thing. A kind of OnlyFans situation of sorts.

As such, they accept requests for special scenes or storylines to play out. All to create the ideal fantasy for their client. Of course, this leads to some rather strange requests along the way as well.

One such request comes when they encounter a mysterious client who offers life-changing money. All they have to do is perform strange rituals on videotape. And yes, I do mean videotape as in VHS.

Suffice to say, they should never have engaged with this person or the ritual. All the money in the world doesn’t matter when your world becomes a living nightmare.

Strong actors star

The two main characters in Custom are portrayed by Abigail Hardingham and Rowan Polonski. And yes, it does sound like some sort of spy name made-up-on-the-spot after seeing the name Roman Polanski, but his name really is Rowan Polonski. Personally, I was more fascinated that he reminded me of a young Tim Curry combined with a Skarsgård brother.

You may recognize Abigail Hardingham from the paranormal horror-comedy Nina Forever or You. And Rowan Polonski was in Kingsman: The Secret Service. Also in a key role is Brad Moore (Gloves off), and all of them deliver strong portrayals of their respective characters.

Again, I feel that their abilities would have been better used in more scenes where they are dressed. As a European, any kind of nudity doesn’t really bother me, but it needs to be there for a reason, and (to me!) the reason gets lost in Custom. The story is more fascinating than anything, and it often takes a backseat to these undressed scenes.

Watch Custom (2024) on Digital

Custom comes from writer and director Tiago Teixeira, and while the premise fascinates me, I wasn’t too thrilled with this movie as a whole. The execution really didn’t do much for me. I constantly felt I had to endure watching yet another physical moment of intimacy before we could get back to the core plot.

And yes, sure, those scenes are a part of the core plot, but that doesn’t mean they have to take up so much space. A movie about football doesn’t usually involve showing entire matches either. A poor comparison perhaps, but there you go.

It gets repetitive without even being actual repetitions, as these scenes also evolve. They do, however, still take away too much from the horror story, and as a horror fan, that was what I was watching it for. I would expect most others would as well when hitting play on a movie labeled as horror and psychological horror.

This isn’t a bad movie, and the premise is, as already mentioned, truly fascinating. It just did not live up to what I expected and feels like a missed opportunity. The movie premiered at Glasgow FrightFest and screened at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival and Razor Reel, and I am certain it’s a solid film festival favorite for many. Just not me, though I adored the two lead actors in it.

Custom is now available on digital in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Also, it’s available in a very limited VHS edition.

Details

Director/Writer: Tiago Teixeira
Starring: Abigail Hardingham, Rowan Polonski, Brad Moore, Samantha Steel

📺 Watch trailer