Movie Review: Itch!

Itch! Movie Review by Matt Boiselle 

Itch! – directed and written by Bari Kang, and starring Bari Kang, Olivia Kang and Monica De Oliveira

Synopsis: As an outbreak makes the afflicted scratch themselves to death, survivors take shelter in a department store, where panic spreads faster than the infection.

It’s like one of those annoying mosquito bites – small in essence, but when that imminent itchy annoyance finally settles into the epidermis, it’s like a parade of fire ants doing a salsa across your skin – claw, rip and tear until said irritation has subsided…or until you’ve sustained massive blood loss after flesh removal – okay, I might be slightly embellishing the frustration-level when it comes to a rash or other skin malady. How about we take it up a notch or two, whereas you simply scratched until you died? In director Bari Kang’s prickly, crawling thriller “Itch!” – you’ll want to have some moisturizer readily available due to all the abrasive scraping that’ll be occurring – maybe trim your nails as to not exacerbate the damage?

Starring Bari Kang as Jay, a widower who is not only trying to process the love of his life, but raise his young daughter who has been rendered mute due to the traumatization, causing a rift in their own relationship. When a maddening infection spreads across the city like wildfire, causing its sufferers to literally scratch their skin to a fatal extent, Bari (who took an extra shift at work), now has to deal with not only the growing pandemic outside his workplace’s walls, but the temperaments of the individuals inside as well. The news reports only add to the delirium clouding the city, as no one yet appears to have a grip on what caused this outbreak or how to combat it, outside of pleading to the masses to not scratch their skin – good luck with that! Survival-mode takes over the remainder of the film as events both outside and inside the store grow to a fever pitch, and the audience gets to see what really goes on under people’s skin (bad pun has landed).

Performances all the way around convey a litany of emotions – we’ve got parenting stability/instability, grief, dominance and sorrow (just to name a few), and they’re all offered up with a polished shine that gives this movie some serious juice. As bad enough as ANOTHER world-shuttering pandemic could be afoot, simply imagine its ingredients and what makes it boil to a scalding temperature, and that’s what this movie delivers to its watchers. Kang’s directorial and acting-style allows for “Itch!” to be one of those infection films that makes you think…maybe even scratch your heads in contemplation? Maybe so, but please don’t scratch too much – we all know you have brains but that doesn’t necessarily mean we want to see them anytime soon.

Itch! will be released on April 20th in the U.K. and then on April 21st in the U.S. on digital streaming platforms.