Tubi Tuesday: Rock, Paper, Scissors (2018)

Strong performances and emotional depth make “Rock, Paper, Scissors” an excellent thriller about the complexities of love and revenge.

Directed and written by Doug Bollinger and co-written by Josh Lee, Rock, Paper, Scissors is about the lengths a couple will go to save each other from collective trauma.

A cold opening shows us a peek behind the curtain of what horrors are to come before we shift to get insight into a married couple’s life. What they dread most has come to happen; the spark between them has gone, and they are utterly numb to each other.

Mundane day-to-day living, as it’s clear Missy (Timothy Laurel Harrison) is disconnected from this relationship, whereas Sam (Jeff Riberdy) seems to want to try to fix things. We follow this situation for a while until one day, we get thrown into a home invasion horror, but we don’t really get to see a lot of this unfold.

This attack traumatizes them, leaving a scorch on their minds. With life becoming unbearable, they seek out therapy to try to move on.

Both of our protagonists give such a hurtful, realistic, and moving performance, but we get only brief glimpses into what happened to them. The audience is left to connect the disturbing dots, only imagining the pain both of them must be reliving every day.

It’s so gripping, but once the tide turns and our film really gets going, the power dynamics certainly shift.

With the attacker not being caught, Missy desires to get her revenge, taking the law into her own hands as therapy isn’t enough.

Taking justice into their own hands, they become their own vigilantes, stalking out the attackers and devising creative ways to succeed.

Even though, in some people’s eyes, what they are doing is wrong, in the end, the attackers deserve their comeuppance and more. With very tense moments at times, the thrill of them possibly being caught has you gripped to the screen.

The only flaw in my eyes is that we, as viewers, are sheltered from what these monstrous men did to Missy and Sam. In the flashbacks, we don’t get to see much. Maybe if we had been shown more, when the men get what they get coming to them, it would have had a bigger emotional payoff. Perhaps that’s just the horror hound in me that always wants to see more.

In fairness to the filmmakers, it could have been for the absolute best that we never saw the true extent of the attack.

Usually, I’m not as much of an advocate for dramas with thrilling aspects, but this film really changed my mind.

I’m always delighted when I find something within the horror genre that I wouldn’t otherwise have reached for, and I absolutely loved Rock, Paper, Scissors.

The stellar cast is the absolute highlight of this film, especially Laurel Harrison; the actress really sold me on the story. She demanded the room with her being knocked down to a shell of a woman to the growth of becoming an outright criminal.

I strongly recommend this film to anyone who is struggling to pick what to watch next. It had me gripped to the very end.

With a satisfying ending, Rock, Paper, Scissors will stay with you for a long time.