Horror Movie Review: Itch! (2024)

Promising way more than it can deliver, Bari Kang’s Itch! is a disappointing watch in the end, and all because the weightier aspects of the film fail to land.

This is Bari Kang’s baby. Not only did he write it, but he directed it, and stars in it. Playing the character of Jay, a man struggling to care for his daughter, Olivia (Olivia Kang) as his grief over losing his wife threatens to consume him. He’s ignored Olivia’s grief though, and the loss of her mother has resulted in the girl going silent.

Does any of this matter? To some degree, yes, as it drives certain plot points forward, but the schizophrenic pacing, mixed with uninspired acting, means it’s hard to really feel anything for the pair. Even though the ending of the film tries to make it so.

Jay’s story takes him to the family department store to work as his father is looking after his sick mother. Unfortunately, he has no choice but to pick up Olivia from school when she is sent home for biting another student. Does this matter? Again, not really. It’s just a way to create a bit of suspicion in the mind of the viewer, but it goes nowhere and just puts father and daughter together as an outbreak takes hold.

An outbreak that begins with a person becoming overcome by the powerful urge to scratch themselves, sometimes to the point where they tear their skin to pieces. Violence follows shortly, and should they die, they won’t stay dead. Yes, regardless of the body horror aspect, Itch! is a zombie film.

I’m not sure why, but I found this reveal disappointing. I think it comes from the lack of potency from the actual itch angle. Which had the potential to be something truly terrifying but ends up coming across quite unimaginative. This is likely because of the budget issues, but there are flashes of promise, so it could be done.

Again though, it hardly matters because the story here is very localised. Keeping Jay, Olivia, shop worker, Lisa (Mia Ventura Lucas), customer Henry (Douglas Stirling), and disgruntled former employee Miguel (Patrick Michael Valley) who arrived at the worst time to rob the place with his pregnant niece Gabriella (Ximena Uribe). With all hell breaking loose outside, the mismatched group will have to work together to survive.

It’s a simple story, one that is fairly easy to stay engaged with, even though very little actually happens.

Itch! is all about the fear of what could happen, rather than what does. Which is a form of storytelling that I support. Except the writing of this story and these characters isn’t strong enough to make this as notable as it could be. I wanted to like Itch!, but far too many times I found myself throwing my hands up in frustration. Especially as the editing reveals a lot of the faults, harms the growth of the characters, and makes the actors seem worse.

Come the end, I realised I didn’t really care about anyone in the film, least of all the two main characters, and I was supposed to. That is why Itch! fails as film as far as I’m concerned.