Save Me From Everything is about “Four generations of Emmy’s family members have turned dangerously insane on their 30th birthday. In order to prevent her own demise, Emmy travels to Ireland to find the person who may be responsible for this family curse.”

Writers and Directors Anthony Baldino and Ryan Lacen approach a tried and true concept surrounding old family secrets and curses and breathe new life into a slow burn narrative filled with nuanced, well built characters. Even the ancestral Irish town that Emmy (Paige Henderson) travels to feels like it’s own quirky character. I wish more filmmakers understood the importance of building up a setting for that purpose as Anthony and Ryan seem to.

The nucleus of what kept me invested in the film itself was the intense, passionate chemistry between ballerina dancing Emma and Patrick (Brendan McCray) the American, Hugh Jackman Wolverine wanna-be, expat street poet she meets at the pub. Slowly as the night grows later, these two open up to each other through dance and street poetry which left me intrigued outside of the nefarious plot that was slowly unravelling. 

I kept thinking I knew where Save Me From Everything was going to take me, and everytime I was ready to pat my assumptions on the back, a new wrinkle would reveal an aspect that I didn’t see coming. Inherited trauma seems to be at the core of the story.

Aesthetically, we are treated to interesting stylized approaches like the Lars-Von-Trierian juxtaposition of crawling ants with the question of, “What gets under you skin?” Another being the visual way of having characters break to the 4th wall to read us their email and text message correspondence – something I would love to see more filmmakers experiment with.Overall, I would very much recommend Save Me From Everything. Don’t forget to watch through the end and stick around for a mid credit scene.