“We Need To Do Something” is a film i’ve been looking forward to for a while now. Since I heard about it from Sierra McCormick’s social media, it has been on my radar. From all the attention it’s been getting at festivals like Tribeca, I knew it was gonna be something special. I got to see it during “Outfest”, the annual Queer film festival in Los Angeles. When I saw the film was playing digitally for a couple days, I knew it was a good time to check it out. I saw the trailer before and I was still amazed at what I saw when the credits rolled.
This film is a great example of trailers that don’t give to much away. The trailer shows clips from throughout the film, but none of them are in context. The trailer doesn’t really tell you anything other than the family is stuck in a bathroom and they’re trying to get out. That trailer didn’t prepare me for everything I was about to witness.
A few spoiler free thoughts before I jump into the bulk of this analysis. The film was super well made. The performances were stellar especially Sierra McCormick as the daughter and Pat Healy as the Father. The cinematography was always interesting and the way the film was paced and laid out, it kept you guessing. Even the score was super engaging. The wails of the electric guitar brought so much suspense to the scenes. If you clicked on this video wondering if you should check this film out, I would 100% recommend it. The film is a stellar thriller that goes places you wouldn’t expect and keeps you guessing throughout. I could definitely see this one being a strong contender for the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards this year.
With the base review out of the way, let’s get into spoiler territory. The biggest thing people would want to discuss is the ending. I’m going to leave my thoughts on the ending of the film until the ending of this video.
This film is definitely one that fits right into the “IFC Midnight” catalogue. When you thought this film was done elevating the craziness, it did it some more. For example, one of the most memorable scenes for me is the Listerine scene. You watch a scene where the father downs a bottle of Listerine like a madman. You see that scene and think, “wow, that was wild. It can’t get any crazier” and then you get Ozzy Osborne as a zombie dog. The film has one of the most insane climaxes of any film this year or previous years. You get Pat Healy ripping a snake off his face, biting the head off, and whipping his wife with the snakes body while a heavy metal score blares through your speakers. This film goes places that you never guess.
The character work in this film is phenomenal. As said in the spoiler free section. The performances are stellar across the board with Sierra McCormick and Pat Healy being the stand outs as the father and daughter. The whole family does a fantastic job with the idea of a family in isolation. You watch these people slowly lose their minds as they’re stuck in their tiny bathroom. The extent of this is present in scenes like anytime Pat Healy starts to freak out and cuss at his family or when Sierra McCormick begins to see her girlfriend in the bathtub with her as a manifestation of her imagination. The actors understand how to play characters dealing with isolation super well.
That element of the film is why it’s super relevant. The film tackles isolation and the idea of how dynamics can change when you’re trapped with the same people over a long period of time. We all experienced that feeling during the 2020 lockdowns and that’s probably why the film fits hard emotionally. The film also tackles the very real concept of people turning on each other. The father turns on his family when he believes there’s no way out. This is showcased well in the scene when he figures out his daughter conjured a spell with her girlfriend. She admitted that she believes the spell could have caused all the chaos. He’s ready to kill her when he hears that, and the mother has to stop him from it. That’s another thing we witnessed during 2020 with everyone witch-hunting each other socially from all sides in every conversation or topic. The isolation in the film caused the family to become more hateful and agitated with each other. In a similar way, the global shutdown caused us as humans to become hateful and agitated with each other. This film is definitely one of the more relatable films i’ve seen since the beginning of the pandemic.
The representation aspect also gets brownie points from me. Having Sierra McCormick play a girl who’s shamelessly queer was a great thing to see. The film didn’t lean on any outdated stereotypes and showcased a realistic depiction of a human being in the LGBT community. Being apart of it myself, it’s super important to me that LGBTQ characters in media are done with respect and quality. Even in my work, I find myself including a wide variety of LGBT characters.
The film dives into the subgenre of Witch horror and it does it super well. Even after viewing the trailer, I didn’t expect that aspect to be apart of the film. The subgenre is one that I love seeing portrayed in media and I think it does a great job with it.
Now for that ending, I could see people being angry with the resolution. The film ends in a similar way that the Nicholas Cage film “Mom & Dad” did. The film just cuts off. The ending sees Melissa (Sierra McCormick’s character) wake up as her mom crawls back into the bathroom. She is covered in blood and Melissa is confused a out what occurred. The mom made it out of the bathroom but was so scared she came back. The pair hear a loud noise coming towards the bathroom and the film ends. The credits include the very catchy “Puttin On The Ritz” by Taco. Many have concidered this ending a “rick roll” as it cuts off right before we get a reveal of what’s outside the bathroom.
I don’t see this ending as bad. It keeps the mystery of the film but also gives us a satisfying conclusion. They could have showed us the “outside” and it could have totally ruined the film. I feel that the subtext in the film kind of confirms what was outside without showing us physically. I believe that through lines of dialogue, it confirms that they unleashed the antichrist and began the apocalypse when Melissa and her girlfriend did their spell. The “monster inside her girlfriend” seemed like it was representative of the antichrist by the end of the film. I could be wrong, but that’s how I perceived it. The ending is not bad as it gives us a satisfying conclusion while also keeping the mystery alive.
This film also probably has some deep queer subtext, but that would take me a couple more watches to fully realize. I’m definitely going to watch this film a lot more in the future, so i’m gonna be looking for some possible queer subtext during those viewings.
I’m thankful that Outfest decided to go online this year, as I was able to check out two fantastic queer films including this one and “The Novice” starring Isabelle Fuhrman. I’m super happy to see a festival focused on the many talented queer filmmakers in the industry and their amazing work. This is definitely a film festival that i’ll be catching a few films at every year from now on. Thank you Outfest for these amazing queer films at their festival.
Overall, We Need To Do Something is a fantastic piece of modern horror/thriller cinema that will definitely be remembered. I could see this film doing well at horror awards shows as it’s a super unique, relevant and creative horror film. It’s one that I’m excited to see how the general public reacts to. IFC Midnight definitely has a hit on their hands. This is a film that will go down as a staple of queer horror cinema.
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