Horror movie review by Paddy Murphy

The premise for Glorious sounds like the setup for a very specific and niche joke; a man walks into a rest stop bathroom and meets an elder god speaking to him through a “gloryhole”.The funny thing as outlandish as it sounds, Glorious is better than it maybe has any right to be. It’s funny, clever, dark, scary, gory and most of all incredibly unique.

It’s funny, clever, dark, scary, gory and most of all incredibly unique.

Glorious starts with Wes [Ryan Kwanten] on the road, recovering from a heart rending breakup. Emotionally battered, Wes spends a night outside a rural rest stop, drinking late into the night and setting ablaze his memories; bar one photo of his beloved Brenda [Sylvia Grace Crim]. The next morning Wes awakes feeling pretty worse for wear and sprints into the rest stop bathroom to empty the contents of his stomach into a pretty disgusting stall.

There is some phenomenal acting and direction at play here and the pacing pulls you along revealing interesting beats at just the right moment.
Paddy Murphy

Post-Upchuck, Wes hears a voice from the neighboring stall; which happens to be adorned with a bizarre but mesmerizing mural around the eye catching glory hole in the center. Wes begins some idle banter with the nameless voice while trying to clean himself up. The stranger informs Wes that his name is Ghatanothoa and claims to be an elder god.

Wes tires of Ghat’s nonsense and tries to leave the bathroom only to find the only door locked tightly. When he tries to call out through a window Ghat turns the rest stop invisible and advises Wes that the only way to escape is to cooperate and… satisfy the elder god with an offering. Wes does everything in his power to get out of the situation but finds it impossible and settles in to have a deep discussion with the eldritch being.

What surprised me most about Glorious is how much it captivated me for a two hander set in one location with one of the actors amounting to nothing but a voiceover. There is some phenomenal acting and direction at play here and the pacing pulls you along revealing interesting beats at just the right moment.

Director Rebekah McKendry, who horror fans may know as one of the former hosts of Shock Waves podcast and current co-host of Colors of the Dark with Elric Kane – knows what she is doing here. Her passion for cosmic horror seeps through and the way she showcases the invisible threat of lovecraftian horror, considering the limited scope of the location is exceptionally impressive.

Kwanten is likable as the trapped and battered Wes, bringing some humor and more than a touch of darkness to the role. Like most lovecraft inspired stories, there’s plenty of madness at play here. JK Simmons excels as the god in the bathroom stall, even though all we ever hear is his voice. Simmons is one of those actors that can do more with just his voice than many can do with every fibre of their being.

One of the reasons Glorious works so well and held my interest is that the 79 minute runtime absolutely flies by. The pacing is slick and the writing kept me invested the whole time. There are some external factors to the movie which take us outside the bounds of the bathroom via Wes’ memories. We also briefly meet Gary [Andre’ Lamar], a rest stop worker who finds himself trapped alongside Wes.

This is the kind of film where I really don’t want to say anymore because I feel like you should go into it knowing the setup and nothing really else. If you had asked me at the start of 2022 if I thought my favourite horror film of 2022 would be about a man trapped in a bathroom talking to an elder god through a gloryhole… I probably would have said yes, but such a film doesn’t exist.

Well now it does and it is exactly what it says on the tin. Glorious.

Glorious is available exclusively via the Shudder streaming service with an active Shudder subscription.

Author

Paddy Murphy

Paddy Murphy is a film-maker and content creator from the West of Ireland. Since 2015 Murphy has written, produced and directed 4 feature films including The Three Don'ts, The Perished and In Memoriam. Murphys YouTube channel Let's Survive Paddy Plays has seen significant growth since it first started in 2020. Favourite Film: Hellraiser, Favourite Game: Resident Evil 3: Nemesis