‘Vicious’ Movie Review: Dakota Fanning Commits In Merciless If Repetitive Mystery-Box Horror
Photo from Paramount Pictures
From Jeremy Kibler
The unknown evil in writer-director Bryan Bertino’s Christmastime-set Vicious is playfully nasty and merciless. Similar to his other horror efforts with a modicum of characters and locations (The Strangers and The Dark and the Wicked), Bertino loves strangers at the door, stranded characters, and the wickedness of random selection. He knows what scares you, and while this chamber piece later runs thin, Vicious gives its lead a workout.
Dakota Fanning is excellent in her one-woman show as Polly, a troubled young woman trying to put her life together, renting a house from her sister (Rachel Blanchard) and brother-in-law, and gearing up for a job interview the next day. Out of the old night, a confused old woman (Kathryn Hunter) knocks at the door, and Polly lets her inside to sit by the warm fire. The woman then changes her tune, saying that Polly is going to die tonight before bringing out a mysterious wooden box and an hourglass. In a passing of some curse, the woman tells Polly that her fate is sealed unless she gives the box what it wants: something she hates, something she needs, and something she loves. Polly can’t tell anyone else, or awful things will happen. Let the sacrifices begin.
Directed with an elegant style by Bertino, Vicious has a chilling setup that grabs from the start. The wintry, lonesome mood with the deceptively cozy crackle of a fire is spot-on, mostly containing the story all in one house. Kathryn Hunter, though not a key antagonist, uses her indelibly raspy voice again since The Front Room to create sinister unease. With a literal mystery box wrapped in morality and mortality, it’s almost like The Box, minus the reward of wealth, in that there’s a box capable of doing so much damage. This curse endlessly cycles through broken people, and the reasons for the punishment are beside the point.
Vicious lives up to its name, cruelly bedeviling Polly and anyone in her circle, but the film still solidly balances the gnarly horror with the human elements. Fanning wholly commits to every terrified look, draining emotion, and physical wringer of self-harm she gets put through, while never losing sight of our connection with Polly. Established as a thirtysomething who used to be stuck in a cycle of self-destruction, she is finally clawing her way out of her depression and anxiety until something wicked comes her way. As anyone would, Polly tries to seek help but just ends up dragging that help down with her. She also tries outsmarting the evil (putting her pack of cigarettes in the box as something she should hate is not the same as something she actually hates), making an implausible scenario feel plausible with her decision-making.
The film’s eventual hurdle isn’t the explanation of “it” inside the mystery box. Fortunately, there is no hand-holding exposition or lore; the box just wants what the box wants (because Polly was home!). Taken on a more metaphorical level, the box could be anything really, managing to be more dread-inducing and powerful without being heavy-handed. However, for a film that’s ruthless and pretty concise in its rules, the narrative slowly becomes a touch too repetitive and exhausting (and not in a good way) once Polly keeps getting tricked. Though the scares in the front half are pretty effective, Bertino goes to the well a few too many times with evil doppelgängers in mirrors, creepy phone calls, and actors sneaking around in ghoulish make-up.
Vicious seems to get most of its goodies out of the way early on until being less able to sustain itself to feature-length. None of the flaws within the screenplay, however, can fully damage the knockout lead performance from Fanning and even a memorable turn by Hunter. Bertino still sticks the landing, leaving things hopeful for one character but carrying his unforgiving mean streak right through to the end. Vicious is like a scary campfire tale that draws blood but could have been tightened with another draft.
Rating: 2.5/5
Vicious is available on digital and streaming on Paramount+ on October 10, 2025.
