[yasr_overall_rating]
Fern Petersen, a driven high school senior, has her life turned upside down when her overly affectionate boyfriend, Robert Klingher, dies in an embarrassing accident. When Robert returns from the dead as a love-sick ghost, he tries to reunite with Fern – only to have his heart broken.
While Fern Petersen (Jennifer Laporte) is running on her high school track, she inadvertently sees Robert Klingher (Vincent Martella), a fellow high school senior, sitting in the bleachers playing the guitar. Their eyes meet and for a moment, they are all that exist in the world. That is of course, until she stumbles over a hurdle and falls flat on her face. Robert comes to her rescue and helps her back onto her feet where they are immediately smitten with each other. Robert asks her to be his girlfriend and the two get caught up in a whirlwind romance involving flowers, candies, stuffed animals and everything romantic.
A few months later, it is quite evident that Robert loves Fern more than she does him. In fact, he is infatuated with her. He has photos of what he predicts their children will look like and every day, her school locker is filled with roses and he even creates a song that he sings to her all the time, informing her that he will love her forever and never be without her. Fern begins to feel smothered and one evening she arrives at his house, while his parents are away and as he is about to unveil a huge I LOVE YOU apparatus which will release hundreds of balloons into the air, she quickly tells him that they need to break up, just as he is pulling the lever for the big reveal.
In shock, he stumbles backwards and trips, just as the release mechanism of the apparatus descends, cutting his head off and essentially, ending their relationship. As time passes and Fern begins to get on with her life, she is shocked when she begins seeing Robert and puts it down to the stress of witnessing his unfortunate, bloody accident but soon she realizes that he has indeed returned from the dead, unaware that he is deceased. For a while, they try to continue their relationship but it becomes ascertainable to Fern that it is just not going to work and she tells Robert this but he states that he will always love her and comprehends that by killing her, they will always be together.
Fern enlists the help of her older sister Kelsey (Julia Aks) and her high school track coach Valeria (Alicia Monet Caldwell), who used to be a psychic and together, they must battle Robert and his legion of undead before they become one of them. The trailer for “Clinger” did little to inspire me but I am delighted to say that the film is, at times, hilarious and has its fair share of bloody and gruesome moments to appease the gorehounds out there. Julia Aks as Fern’s older sister Kelsey pretty much stole the show for me with her positive yet constantly facetious outlook on life.
Wanting to be an entrepreneur and stand out from the crowd, she sets up her own business and arrives at Fern’s high school with sock puppets as grief counselors to help those who might need therapy after Robert’s untimely death. A scene like that could typically fall flat but Ms. Aks manages to play the scene straightlaced and because of her deadpan approach, it works. The cast overall were very charismatic and appealing and it was great seeing Lisa Wilcox (Alice from A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 & 5) popping up in a brief cameo as Robert’s mother. With so many low-budget films out there it’s hard to know which are good and which are truly terrible but as a horror lover for over 30 years, “Clinger” does a commendable job of combining two genres that if not done correctly, could cause the movie to die a quick and painful death.
In theaters and On Demand October 23rd
