Directors/Screenplay – Dan Berk & Robert Olsen, Producer – Dan Kagan, Photography – Matt Mitchell, Music – Oliver Coates, Visual Effects – ReDefine, Special Effects Supervisor – Conor Wing, Makeup Effects Supervisor – Carey Jones, Makeup Effects – KNB EFX Group, Inc, Production Design – Priscilla Elliott. Production Company – Paramount Players.
Maika Monroe (Ruth), Jake Lacy (Harry), Matthew Yang King (Ray), Dana Green (Vivian)
Harry has taken his girlfriend Ruth camping in the woods of the Pacific Northwest, although she is struggling with anxiety issues. Harry has brought her there with the intention of proposing to her. However, when he does so, Ruth reacts badly to this. As becomes apparent, there are aliens in the woods that are capable of duplicating human form.
Significant Other was the fourth film from the writing/directing partnership of Dan Berk and Robert Olsen. The two had previously written-directed the thriller Body (2015), the Glass Eye Pix sequel Stake Land II (2016) and the witty Villains (2019) where two inept burglars are captured by a sinister couple, as well as written the script for Mike Mendez’s highly enjoyable body-hopping effort Don’t Kill It (2016).
The fun of Significant Other comes in its whiplash Conceptual Reversal Twists. It is very difficult to discuss the film without giving away important plot twists – I have deliberately kept the plot description above vague beyond a few details for the very reason that discussing significant developments gives away much of the film’s surprise. I have indicated the sections where I do so below if you choose to read or not.
Berk and Olsen conduct a textbook set-up – a couple (Maika Monroe and Jake Lacy) make a getaway into the woods of the Pacific Northwest. This is one of the films that were made around the time of the pandemic that were shot outdoors with minimal crews and casts – here there are only two actors on screen for the entire film (although we get multiple versions of the characters), a young boy who turns up for one scene at the start and a few scenes during the encounter with another couple in mid-film.
While out in the woods, Jake Lacy takes Maika Monroe to the cliffside view of the ocean with the intention of proposing to her – only for her to react badly to the idea. Amid the strained aftermath, something happens but it is not clear what. Maika is blank and oddly changed the next day. It becomes impossible to discuss the film after this point without giving away PLOT SPOILERS. I make a point of looking at the IMDB cast and credits list before watching a film to identify who is who and this gave away one crucial spoiler – that both Maika Monroe and Jake Lacy play characters listed as Ruth/Ruth Duplicate and Harry/Harry Duplicate, which indicates in that we are in for some kind of Doppelganger film. Furthermore, the fact that the film is listed as science-fiction, along with the appearance of meteorites from the sky in the opening shot, suggests we are in for a Body Snatchers film.
PLOT SPOILERS CONTINUE. The scenes the next day suggest that something has changed about Maika, probably from when she went for a walk earlier and entered a cave to find a blue substance. She is seen blankly standing with her back to the camera, while in other shots her inexpressive face fills half the camera frame in the foreground. However, everything seems normal when she goes to Jake in the morning, asking if they can go back up to the cliff view and rerun the proposal as though it were the first time. He eagerly agrees – only for her to abruptly turn and shove him over the cliff. She flees the scene and is found by another couple of campers where she remains blank. The clear impression you get during these scenes is that Maika has been taken over and replaced by an alien body snatcher.
PLOT SPOILERS CONTINUE. The jolt that overturns everything is when Jake Lacy turns back up again, quite cheerful as he slaughters the other couple with a fingernail that niftily turns into twelve-inch blade as he pursues Maika. The adeptness of Berk and Olsen’s conceptual sleight of hand becomes apparent at this point where what we had assumed was Maika Monroe’s blankness due to being an unemotional body snatcher was in fact just traumatised shock and that it was Jake who was the alien duplicate.
The last thing you then expect the film to do is turn into a comedy – the tone in the films of the original 1950s body snatchers fad was stark paranoia. Nevertheless that is what happens. There is the really quite hilarious image of Jake Lacy pursuing Maika while smiling widely and proclaiming “I love you” and telling her not to worry because he has just discovered emotions and loudly proclaiming “It feels great.” The film proceeds through assorted other twists and turns. Berk and Olsen do so with such a whiplash adeptness that Significant Other proves one of the more fresh and satisfying takes on the body snatchers film in some time.
Trailer here