Content Warning: today’s film and discussion include topics of sexual assault.

This week’s Tubi Original is Sorry, Charlie from director Colton Tran and writer Luke Genton. They have two other films together (Snow Falls, The Bell Keeper) that I have not seen, and another (Sketch) on the way. It mostly stars Kathleen Kenny as Charlie, alongside a bunch of voices on the telephone. One of those voices is The Gentleman, who is also the only other major on-screen character, played by Travis William Harris (body) and Connor Brannigan (voice).

Here’s the descrippy-scrip, straight from Tubi/IMDB and pleasantly spoiler-free: “A remote helpline volunteer becomes targeted by a stranger who lures women from their homes with a recording of a crying baby.”

If you just want spoiler-free thoughts, I thought Sorry, Charlie was a really solid suspense/thriller type film that was perhaps held back a little by its logistics as an indie film. It was shot in seven days, and while having only one on-screen actor makes that a little easier to manage, it also leaves everything with a rushed, “good enough, let’s move on” sort of feeling. I also think the look and presentation of the villain is out of tone with the rest of  the film, which I will explain later. Most importantly, though, the story itself is clever, if familiar, with some well played twists and turns. There are elements of stalking, home invasion, and fight back films, but not a lot of severe violence and horror, so this one will be more palatable for some of you. Overall quite satisfying. 4/5 Skulls.

For those who want to see the film without spoilers, this is where to stop reading for now. For those who have seen it or don’t care, it’s story time!

Charlie is a crisis line worker with a heart of gold and a troubled past just trying to do what she can for the world. She is also nine months pregnant because she was assaulted by a serial rapist called The Gentleman, who lures victims from their homes with recordings of crying babies. He also wears a weird skull mask/helmet and a stovepipe hat. The Gentleman is specifically trying to impregnate his victims so he can come back and take his children or something. the motivation wasn’t quite clear to me, but I may have just missed it. Charlie is terrified The Gentleman will come back for her, which everyone else thinks is crazy because The Gentleman was supposedly caught. Charlie believes it isn’t the right guy because she knows his voice, and it turns out she was right. The Gentleman returns to stalk her in her home, then invades her space without even asking. The battle of wills ensues and all looks lost until The Gentleman gets sloppy, Charlie escapes, and stabs him repeatedly with some scissors. Then, out of nowhere, she stabs herself in the abdomen and oh shit, did she just kill her own baby in front of this hideous monster of a human that fathered it? Nope! Turns out Charlie was never pregnant and this whole thing was a plan for her to sucker him in and get her revenge. She pulls a gun out of her fake pregnant belly, shoots him in the head, and never even takes off the mask to see who it is. The end.

I thought this was a really solid story, with an especially effective ending. I didn’t for one moment ever think Charlie wasn’t really pregnant, to the extent that when she stabs herself with the scissors, I was legitimately startled because it was so much more severe a moment than anything else in the film. I literally said, “oh, shit,” to my TV. Didn’t shout it, but it was there nevertheless. And then came a genuinely surprised, “oh, no shit” when she pulls out the fake belly stuffing. It was a real gamble to build a movie that’s entire success for audiences can hinge on that one moment, but it worked for me.

My biggest complaint is that I was problematically distracted by the look of The Gentleman. I feel like, for what is such a gritty and realistic thriller, a simple knit facemask or something would have been better. The fancy skull mask and stovepipe hat gave me possibly supernatural weird slasher vibes, like Art the Clown in Terrifier. I had to really struggle with my suspension of disbelief, and didn’t entirely succeed.

Big applause to Kathleen Kenny for basically carrying the entire film. I feel she could have drawn even more out of this performance with more than seven days to make it happen, but she was believable and sympathetic. I was rooting for her. And that’s really my other major complaint here. As mentioned up top, it all feels just a little rushed, a little “good enough.” I wonder if perhaps the screenwriting process was similarly rushed. The atmospheres and beats are effective enough to enjoy, but a more refined version of this could have been on my Top 10 of 2023 list.

It should be noted that at least one other reviewer, Mary Beth McAndrews of Dread Central, had this to say in her review from August 24, 2023: ” . . . the narrative, while trying to maintain some semblance of decorum in regard to trauma, does often fall into sensationalism and borderline exploitation . . . especially for those who have experienced sexual assault . . . It’s overall deeply satisfying, the road to that satisfaction is just a little rocky.” I figure she is far more likely to be aware of these things than me, so I take her word for it.