The most unique feature of The Scribbler, is the titular character, because ironically, the movie is little more than messy scribbles itself. Good portions of everything seem to have been borrowed from elsewhere, and cobbled together into a convoluted pastiche that attempts to somehow prove it is wildly different and innovative, despite collapsing into a pseudo-intellectual musing about self-help treatments for mental illness. As a superhero origin story for an intriguing character, it lays somewhere in-between “Catwoman” and “Green Lantern.”

Based on a graphic novel by Dan Schaffer, who also wrote the movie, and directed by John Suits, The Scribbler follows Suki (Katie Cassidy), a young woman plagued by Dissociative Identity Disorder. At the beginning of the movie, she is questioned by the police over a series of suicides that have occurred at her residence Juniper Towers (explained as a halfway point between the outside world and a psych ward).

Over the course of the film, she recounts her experiences at Juniper Towers. These include meeting such colorful and compelling people like:

• A Cleopatra look-alike who has a pet snake
• A girl who doesn’t like wearing any clothes
• A goth lunatic who pushes people down stairs and asks people if they’ve seen her dog
• A seemingly healthy guy who willingly stays in the complex because he likes having sex with the inmates, who according to him, all have “daddy issues.”
• A girl who wears bunny ears and likes to talk about death (REALLY???????)
• An English bulldog who talks in a Cockney accent

I would be lying if I said I cared in the slightest about any of them. These descriptions are for the most part all that we learn about them.

She explains that she is undergoing therapy for her condition using a device known as “The Siamese Burn” which literally shocks multiple personalities out of her brain. The comes together as a poorly-plotted mystery “thriller” which spends far too much time focused on Katie Cassidy’s annoyingly ever-present pouty-face, while she half-delivers passive aggressive pieces of dialogue and occasionally hears voices inside her head.

The clearest influence on this wanna-be cult classic, is that of Zack Snyder. There is a strong attempt to replicate his stylized, dark visual design, and swoopy, irregular camera movements. In fact, it is almost a spiritual successor to “Sucker Punch.” Except The Scribbler makes the aforementioned seem like Inception.

Next we have the murky, dour, green-brown aesthetic, popularized by Platinum Dunes’ 2003 remake “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, now widely overused as a color palette for films lacking any better stylistic suggestions. There are also bits and pieces of the neo-noirs “The Crow” & “Sin City”, and some found-footage segments eerily reminiscent of the psychiatric scenes in “The Ring.” Even the score is best defined as Hans Zimmer-lite.

Unfortunately, The Scribbler didn’t borrow its script from a better movie, and instead decided it wanted to be written by an angst filled 16-year old white suburban alt-punk girl with a self-diagnosed case of what she thinks constitutes as Dissociative Identity Disorder, despite her strongest evidence being a brief peruse of the Simple English Wikipedia page. Among the already sparse dialogue, there are constant, and irritating, spearheaded lines about the choice between conformity and individuality, where it is suggested that by staying psychologically unstable, you are somehow closer to what you really are? We also have true screenwriting gems of dialogue along the lines of:

“They tell us madness is culturally relative, I say it’s culturally relevant!”

“Crazy people, we don’t play by the rules- and there are always side effects.”

I haven’t read the graphic novel. This line makes sure it will likely stay that way.  I have encountered more than enough Iamverysmart in this film to have the patience for more. If it at least wasn’t so straight-faced about it, but the movie takes itself so goddamn seriously you’d think it actually believes in this bollocks.

Even the manner in which the narrative is presented is far simpler than the movie thinks it is. There is an exchange early on in the film between Detective Moss (Michael Imperioli) and Suki:

Moss: “Why don’t you tell me what happened, from the beginning?”

Suki: ““That’s not always the best way to tell a story.”

Yet the movie does exactly that, barring some neatly ordered flashbacks.

This does not help when being combined with the near Asylum-level production value. Understandably, not everyone has a couple million to make their dream picture, but I would always encourage directors to not worsen their work by choosing approaches only capabale of being pulled off properly by more expensive ventures. I could perhaps overlook the 2000s era CGI-lightning, were it not for cheap particle effects laced through the even cheaper fight scenes, which were seemingly choreographer by a martial arts student on his gap year.

Well it can’t be all bad can it? Indeed it isn’t. As mentioned before, the titular character is one I wouldn’t mind returning in a different movie. MILD SPOILERS AHEAD: One of Suki’s alternate personalities is that of the Scribbler, a superhero-like figure who is unable to speak yet communicates through telekinetically writing messages backward. Her body is covered with inky scribbles, constantly erasing and rewriting different words and phrases. Think of the cover of “The Number 23.” While her superpowers remain largely in the dark, this is a more-than solid base to build on.

There are also entertaining cameos by Kunal Nayar (The Big Bang Theory), Richard Riehle (the old man with a yard brush mustache who has been in everything under the sun), and Sasha Grey (yes THAT Sasha Grey). But when your best parts are composed of an idea that you failed to include properly, and B-List actors who are still little more than gimmicks at this point, your final product is not going to be all that fantastic is it?

Okay maybe I am being a little harsh, and I really did want this film to succeed. Yes it does seem very DC-like at times, but here was an opportunity to create a different type of superhero film, the likes of which are more than welcome in my book. The market is badly saturated with AAA superhero block-busters at the moment, and alternative takes on the genre should be encouraged. Somewhere, underneath the gloomy, muddled, misguided veneer, there is a small light that suggests a Scribbler 2 wouldn’t be a hopeless effort. There is passion in this project, but it needs to be tailored and revised before it should be allowed on the big screen once again.

3/10