The thing about a film like True Fiction is — as a film in an alienating horror genre already — it further pushes viewers away with a non-linear, completely insane story structure.

What others may be dismissing about True Fiction are things I absolutely loved. This story of an aspiring writer who gets her dream job helping her favourite horror writer with a psychological experiment is one of the most grotesque, intensely interesting scripts written this year.

Writer-director Braden Croft goes for broke here, and there’s no doubting he’s put some people off. But for me, this movie worked on every level.

The suspenseful, bloody gorefest that plays on viewer expectations, leaving us wondering what’s real, what’s fake, and what’s experiment versus reality can be dizzying, in the best possible way.

This entire film lives and dies on a bravura performance by Sara Garcia, who absolutely nails it. You will guess and wonder and get zigzagged start to finish.

I can’t tell you if you’ll like it — I loved it — but it’s guaranteed to be unlike anything else you see this year, and that alone makes it worthwhile viewing for film aficionados.

4/5 Stars