Lilly is a haunted woman who lives alone on the outskirts of town. She seemingly only has one friend, a coworker, and harbors some heavy mistrust for her neighbors. We know that Lilly had a daughter at one point, but something tragic happened to her. This is why the anniversary of her kid’s death is triggering Lilly as she hides in booze, drugs, and sometimes men. These are the ingredients that Lilly Lives Alone hands its audience before telling them to go figure out a meal without giving us a recipe.
The film opens intriguingly with a scene that raises many questions. As an audience member, you want to know how we get to the body on the floor, the blood, the mess, and the woman holding the knife who looks terrified. Lilly Lives Alone excels at vibes and pictures. It packs bloody bathtubs, a creepy ghost child, and a head wound that makes you lean in as you try to piece together a puzzle that does not want to be solved.
The biggest issue with the film is that the script spends so much time building a mystery that it forgets to get out of its way and actually solve it. So, we are left unsure what happened to Lilly’s daughter. We do not even know if Lilly (Shannon Beeby) is a reliable narrator, as we get the impression some incidents are in her head. However, we never get confirmation in one way or another. This is one of the many ways Lilly Lives Alone feels unfinished and disjointed.
We have so many loose threads that never come together. We still do not know if Lilly’s neighbors are gaslighting her. Or if they are genuinely concerned but afraid of her. We are also unsure why the one-night stand, Jed (Ryan Jonze), gets so involved in this story. Lilly Lives Alone does not even let us in far enough to know if Lilly’s house is haunted or if it is all in her head. As an audience, we cannot even prove Lilly was alive for part of the movie, as she took a handful of benzos at one point. This movie is frustrating because there is plenty of cool stuff in this soup. However, it is almost as if no one remembered to turn the stove on. So, it is just sitting there waiting for the most important part of the process.
After the film screened at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, writer-director Martin Melnick and his wife, producer Sarah Johnston, shared that this story has personal ties for them. So, the film may be inaccessible to the rest of us because they are so engrossed in their experience that it is hard to convey it to others.
Lilly Lives Alone is a haunting mystery that never lets its audience in. This is cool in theory because it leaves everything open to interpretation. However, it also makes it difficult to assess if the film achieved what it set out to do if we are unsure what the goal was as the credits are rolling. If vibes and riddles without answers are your jam, then this might be the movie for you.
Lilly Lives Alone played at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival on October 18th, 2024.