Ben (Joshua Tonks) rents an isolated cabin in the woods to work on his thriller novel. Soon he gets snowed in and goes nuts and attacks his family. No, that last part is a joke.

But soon a stranger (Jay Clift) comes to the door. It turns out to be a character from one of his books.

No, that’s a joke, too. 

But you see what I’m implying: this is heavily influenced by Stephen King. Which is not a bad thing! It’s just a thought that kept coming to me as I watched: this is something King could have written, but gay!

Yes, gay! Ben is gay, though closeted, and his choice to self-isolate is as much to escape an argument with his boyfriend as it is a wooing of the dark muse.

Ben is a dreamer, and the movie cuts away into dreams and daydreams, fuzzying the edges of what is real and what is happening in his mind.

Into all this comes The Man, unnamed, whose car seems to have broken down, and he needs help. Cell phones exist, but are apparently ignored for the purpose of this plot point.

The Man is a bit dangerous-looking, stares uncomfortably long and his story is not quite watertight. Ben finds him irresistible, artistically, and begins working him into his novel. 

And his daydreams.

So that’s the basic plot of the movie, and whether you find its progress predictable or surprising mostly depends on what sorts of movies you’ve watched before. While the dialogue is sometimes stilted, it’s well-acted, and the delivery seems intentional. Neither Ben nor The Man are entirely sympathetic, though, and the main star is the tension between them. Is it threat of violence, or is it repressed sexuality? A will they/won’t they where one option is brutal murder.

So the question is going to come up: is this good LGBTQ+ representation? Well, it’s complicated.

If the world were full of gay characters – or even 5-10% of characters, in keeping with rough statistics of LGBTQ+ folks in the general population – then no one piece needs to represent all of gaiety. But that’s not so, so each gay character, unfairly, bears that extra weight.

Ben is closeted, and in fantasies at least seems willing to cheat on his absent boyfriend. He’s kind of a creep. But hey, gay dudes can be creeps, too, like anyone. We reserve the right to sometimes be the bad guy. I guess what it comes down to is does Ben seem authentic?

And you know, I’m not sure how I feel there. I find him unlikeable, but I don’t think he’s supposed to be. Does he resemble gay guys I know? Maybe? But we’re seeing inside and his issues don’t stem from being gay, but from being a creep. Separate things. Which I think makes it okay, at least for me. Your mileage may vary.

Overall, The Latent Image a reasonably well-written and directed film. The soundtrack works well for me, and that can often make or break a movie. The lighting is worth noting: the cabin is lit with neon tubes, Christmas lights, candles, flickering lanterns. I like eccentric lighting in movies. A lot. But this seems just cluttered and pretentious. But … maybe that’s the point? Isn’t Ben somewhat cluttered and pretentious? He writes on a manual typewriter and peeps with an old film camera. But I’m probably overthinking. I didn’t like the lighting, that’s all. I think it was trying for something it failed to achieve. But it’s not a death blow.

Also there’s some nudity, so that gives it an extra half-star.