Movie Review: ‘Welcome To Mercy’

Review by Caitlin Zeigler

Madaline (Kristen Ruhlin) returns home with her daughter Willow (Sophia Massa) when she finds out her father is sick. Her mother told her that she shouldn’t have come. When Madaline starts experiencing something strange, she soon finds out it’s stigmata. A priest, who is a friend of the family, convinces Madaline to go get help at his church. Mother Superior (Eileen Davies) tries her best to help Madaline and August (Lily Newmark) tries to help her keep her sanity. It is being at the church that Madaline learns the truth of why she was chosen and what, if anything, she can do to stop it. A lot of what she experiences has to do with her past and her parents.

The plot of the film drags a little bit, but when you get to the end, it ties everything together. It’s also interesting to see that the people Madaline thinks she can trust, she can’t and the people she thinks she can’t trust are the ones trying to look out for her. She does what she needs to do to try to save herself and get back to her daughter, but finding out about the source of her problems could end in her downfall. This film has some unnecessary jump scares because they end in showing you someone doing chores or something not scary. Other than that, this film is less about being scary and is more of a mystery film. Some people will like it, but it might not keep everyone strongly engaged into the storyline because you have to wait until the end to tie it together.