Final Recovery, 2025.
Directed by Harley Wallen.
Starring Charlene Tilton, Richard Tyson, Jasper Cole, Michael Emery, Kaiti Wallen, Cherish Lee, and Damien Chinappi.
SYNOPSIS
When Rodney winds up in the Sage Treatment Facility and in the care of the twisted Nanny Lou, his drive to do better for his family and new friends leads him to more trouble when he rebels against his ornery captor.
Director Harley Wallen wastes no time setting the tone for his film, Final Recovery, opening on a flashback to the 70s, as a young adolescent girl witnesses her father being brutally killed by a drug addict. Flash forward and we already know that this event will play a significant role and what’s about to transpire some 50 or so years later.
Much of the action of the film takes place at Sage Treatment facility, a rehab clinic run by the diminutive Nanny Lou (Charlene Tilton) who evidently wields great influence over the people of her town. Her work doesn’t go unnoticed, but right from the off, something feels off about the way she and her subordinates operate and deal with their regular patients who yoyo in and out of the facility, including Rodney (Jasper Cole).
Rodney struggles at every turn to get himself clean, to the ire of his ex-wife and the pity of his daughter he’s trying to reconnect with. After returning to the facility, he’s roomed with newcomer, Dustin (Damien Chinappi), and after some initial friction, they begin to form a connection, based largely on a growing suspicion that something ain’t quite right about Nanny Lou and her operation. Wallen takes a ballsy step in focusing on his core characters, and the quirky side characters, building things up slowly before this turns from grim psychological drama with grindhouse aesthetics, into a full on twisted horror that fully embraces its B-movie DNA.
The slow simmer does aid in giving this more depth and interesting characters than is typical in this genre, but occasionally does bog the pace down during the mid-section before things really kick into gear. Wallen embraces the low budget and rolls with it. It’s rough around the edges visually and also in terms of the dialogue tracks in places, but the grim palettes help create a brooding atmosphere that moves from unsettling to downright threatening in the final act. Further bolstered by a score that slowly builds that sense of dread.
Cole’s performance as Rodney is strong, giving his flawed and damaged character plenty of pathos. B movie veteran Richard Tyson, is given a decent amount of screentime as the facility’s resident Doctor, who’s clearly one can short of a six-pack (and Tyson duly commands the screen). However, in what could have been novelty casting in a former soap icon, Charlene Tilton really knocks it out of the park as Nanny Lou. There are shades of Katherine Hepburn in Mommie Dearest, Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, Kathy Bates in Misery, and more recently, Mia Goth in Pearl.
It’s that chilling wide-eyed, no one behind the wheel, psychotic delusion that’s way out of hand and yet with a splash of relish in abusing her power (like Louise Fletcher’s Nurse Ratched). Tilton plays it big, but it never feels soapy, and the emotional complexity of the character and her motivations are compelling. Most of all, though, and key for that transition into a horror finale, is the fact that she’s chilling. Yeah, Lucy Ewing from Dallas is gonna give me nightmares.
Horror fans might want things to move a little quicker, but there’s enough solid character work to hold your attention, and the payoff is worth the journey. Above all, though, this is well worth seeing for Tilton’s impressively unsettling and compelling star turn. The grindhouse is here in abundance, but with just a little something extra, too.
Final Recovery is out now in the US on Amazon, Tubi and Plex.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Tom Jolliffe
