| Mercy | |
| Director: | Chris Sparling |
| Producer: | Robyn K. Bennett Andrew D. Corkin Kyle Franke |
| Starring: | James Wolk Caitlin FitzGerald Tom Lipinski Dan Ziskie Michael Godere Michael Donovan |
| Music: | Phil Mossman |
| Cinematography: | Luca Del Puppo |
| Editing: | Seth Anderson Phillip Kimsey |
| Studio: | XYZ Films Uncorked Productions |
| Distributor: | Netflix |
| Runtime: | 90 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Mercy is a 2016 American thriller film written and directed by Chris Sparling. The film had its world premiere at Los Angeles Film Festival on June 4, 2016, and its distribution rights were acquired by Netflix.[1] [2]
Grace (Constance Barron) is dying. That much is clear. She lies on a hospital bed set up on the second floor of her farmhouse. Her husband, George (Dan Ziskie), does his best to take care of her. One day, the doctor, later revealed to have been calling George multiple times, pleaded to administer drugs to Grace to "ease her suffering." He hands a bag to George, which contains the instructions and drug. George reluctantly takes the bag and slams the door.
Grace has four sons, two with George and two with her abusive ex-husband, a man who died and left a fortune in trust to Grace, meant to go to Brad (James Wolk) and Travis (Tom Lipinski), the sons of her first marriage. However, George and his sons, Ronnie (Michael Godere) and TJ (Michael Donovan), are planning to take the money among themselves. George tells his sons that he has arranged to inherit the money when Grace dies, which, in the future, will be inherited by his children. TJ later found the medical bag in the trash bin and questioned his father about it. George reminded his sons to behave and not talk about the money around their stepbrothers. When they all come together as Grace seems near her end, tensions surface, more so as Brad has brought along his new girlfriend Melissa (Caitlin FitzGerald) for support, to which everyone else seems outright appalled.
As the evening passes, a curious mention of something between the family is alluded to, and how whatever is in the black bag will end her pain, but the decision to do so is not easy. When Melissa asks why, the response is left unheard. It's not long after when the property comes under invasion by masked figures who attack the home, having Brad, Melissa, and Travis retreat into Grace's room to try and hold them off. The masked men abandon their efforts to get in the room and instead head back outside where they write the word ‘Mercy’ in a fire on the front lawn. They stand their ground and wait while Brad, Travis, and Melissa argue over what to do next. After arguing, Travis attempts to go out and find his phone in his room. After discovering his phone is missing, he continues to go outside and grabs a motorbike in the garage. The masked man catches him and throws him off the motorbike. As Travis exchanges punches with a masked man, another shoots him from behind.
The entire movie rewinds to the beginning of that day to show the point of view of the other characters. George was shown attempting to burn the drug but was intercepted. As George looks for a match to light up the fire pit, the masked man grabs the drug. Later that night, a masked man attempts to administrate the drug on Grace but is surprised to find George sleeping in a chair in the room. As he attempts to leave, George wakes up, and the two end in a scuffle. Both of them roll down the stairs ending with the back of George's head hitting the bottom of the stairway, killing him.
TJ was later shown waking up and decided to watch TV. He finds a videotape labeled with Grace's Church. The video showed Grace inviting parishioners but was later cut due to her churchmates noticing bruises on her face, implied to have been caused by her abusive then-husband. TJ also found a box containing news clippings, later revealed to say that the death of Grace's ex-husband was suspicious and her church was rumored to be involved.
A masked man appears and takes TJ out of the house. Ronnie also wakes up to pee. He notices the missing handle from the staircase which broke from George's earlier scuffle with a masked man. Ronnie shrugs it and continues to the restroom where he finds a broken curtain hook on the floor. He pulls the curtain and finds the bathtub empty. He shook his head and thought he was just being paranoid. As he is about to flush the toilet, he stares at the cabinet on the opposite side and a masked man bursts out and attacks him. Ronnie ends up banging his head on the tub.
The point of view now shifts to the earlier scene wherein Brad wakes Travis, telling him there may be someone in the house. As they go out to investigate and turn on the electricity, they hear Melissa screaming. Melissa runs into the woods and finds TJ but thinks he is with the masked men. TJ was then stabbed to death by a masked man as Melissa ran back to Brad and Travis.
With Travis now dead, Brad decides to fight off the masked men but is significantly outnumbered. He and Melissa tried to run back upstairs to Grace's room but she tripped and was held by the masked men. Brad apologizes as he lets go of Melissa's hand and runs. He panics and immediately administers the drug on Grace yelling to the masked men that he's now doing it.
The drug said to 'ease Grace's pain,' turns out to be a medicine and not a means to end her life. The masked men enter the room, who turn out to be the members of Grace's church.
As the movie ends, Grace is taken out by the church members. They pause in front of Brad and Grace rolls her eyes as she sees her son. In an unshown scene, it was implied that the doctor shot Brad.