I’ve always said there are some horror movies in which it feels like the characters can hear the creepy score and know they’re in a genre movie as they move slowly to increase tension. Some of these are a bit overdone for the theatricality of the genre. And then there are the creepy night scenes of sounds and shadows when Elizabeth senses a presence in the house. First, it’s reflected in the increasingly unstable behavior of her son, which really hits home when literally no one in his class will come over for a playdate. Mom is the first to suspect that there’s more to the story of Z than meets the eye. Josh seems to be acting even creepier to get attention and dad is willfully dismissive of the problems with his son, even after he gets suspended from school. In fact, there’s an interesting undercurrent in the first third of “Z” in which it feels like Elizabeth is being gaslighted by her husband and son. Josh, who formerly slept with the door open now wants it closed because “Z likes it dark.” And mom thinks she sees something at Play Zone but no one believes her. The sense that something is wrong with Josh’s relationship with Z hits mom first, as it always does in these movies (you could program a film festival with horror movies in which mom knew something was wrong before dumb old dad). And so his parents-Elizabeth ( Keegan Connor Tracy) and Kevin ( Sean Rogerson)-are actually happy when their son starts opening up and playing with an imaginary friend named ‘Z’.
Josh Parsons ( Jett Klyne) is a quiet eight-year-old without a lot of friends.