Fimmaking On The Fly

If you have been reading TLR on a regular basis since June--you know that I have been keeping tabs on Jason Mayer's thriller The Pendant (trailer). With both its launch and a week long engagement down in Wildwood NJ now history--My review of the film is here....!


The film follows Mary Phelps (Kristy Richman) a tax assessor that is assigned to evaluate the property of a hotel that has become delinquent on paying their taxes.

When the hotel owner is unavailable at the time of her arrival she is forced to spend the night in the hotel. She finds herself dealing with both personal issues over ex boyfriend (Mike Marino) and strange occurrences throughout the night.


It's clear from the opening minutes of the movie that Team Spontaneous (Mayer & co-writer Deven Lobascio) is taking the audience on a ride, and thankfully--Some issues aside, it's a trip worth your time.

The story has Richman's Mary going through quite a lot of turmoil as the 70 minute feature plays itself out-Giving her the chance to showcase a wide range of emotion. Richman draws you in and makes you care about Phelps--while at the same time proving like Jamie Lee Curtis and Sigourney Weaver did with characters in the 70's before her-- that she can take care of herself No wallflower here folks. By way of example there are 2 key scenes in the latter half of the film where she finds herself in scenes opposite actors Justin Clarke and the creepy John Westlake that are pretty unsettling and Richman holds her own.

Mayer also includes some nice little touches here that I appreciated both as someone with a film degree and as a former filmmaker...

There's a hotel stairway camera shot that just blew me away--There's also very cool nods to Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Rodriguez and Alexandre Aja in The Pendant as well.



On the downside The pacing of the film can be a bit off at times and that does tend to take away from the film as it tries to build suspense. Not exactly the best thing for a thriller.

The film boasts a few BIG twists--And this is where I think my film degree and watching many key films in the genre got in the way--As I told Mr. Lobascio. Without giving them away here-- I was able to pick up on all but one or two of them. Whereas the average audience member may not-Unless they pay attention to EVERY detail in the film-You will be thrown a few unexpected curve balls for sure.

Thanks to a well written and well acted lead--A solid supporting cast and some nice touches--While not perfect The Pendant works!

I couldn't help but smile when the film concluded..Jay and Deven should be proud of the end result