Director: Lawrence W. Nelson II
Year: 2016
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Getting out of an abusive marriage, a woman and her friends head for a relaxing girls weekend, but they discover the indie movie shot happening there by her sister is the least of her worries when the house is invaded and forced to partake in wild games by a deranged pair of psychos for their enjoyment.
Review:
On the whole, this one was a decent enough indie slasher. Among the better qualities featured here is the strong central setup that proves to be far more empowering than expected. By exploring her past history of abuse, not only the stories told about their relationship but the flashbacks we get featuring the physical side of their past, this one really enhances the idea that there was emotional and physical damage she sustained that changed her personality. That the trip she takes and spends with her friends that give her the carnage to finally fight back against him, owning up to and overcoming the fear she has of her husband, and men in particular, saves this one nicely.
As well, the film turns itself around nicely in the final half where this features some rather dark and brutal concepts. That there are several fine twists in allegiances and alliances makes for a pretty shocking time. That we get several twists, from who the seemingly friendly couple are to the true nature of the couple filming the movie and the general reversals found in the latter half as just some of the swerves mentioned here that give this far more story than expected throughout here. With these coming along due to the stunning change in approach, they emerge in a fun way that keeps this one interesting for the most part, giving this one a lot to like about it.
This does have a few major flaws. The main problem on display is the utterly lame way in which this turns away from a potential slasher into a flimsy home-invasion effort. By eschewing the escaped ex-husband as a nonsensical blimp in the road of his hacked-out plans, there’s no need to focus on him for any amount of time as he’s simply there to stretch out the running time in favor of these lame and non-threatening games which border on being horror at all. Even more so, the change to do this in a slasher setup with the ex-husband intending to knock them off rather than this is unearned, a complete cheat and serves to undermine a lot of the goodwill it built up beforehand.
The other flaw is the rather obvious indie-flavored technical mistakes that can’t go unanswered. Taking the budget into account, there’s no excuse for how the sound-quality is so jarring and awful, with overdubbed conversations between two different levels as if they were done at a later state, on-set discussions that are drowned out by ambient noise or just drawing out the scene altogether for the soundtrack cues over the top of the scenes. As well, the laughable editing quality where things will jump to an obviously different take in the scene by switching camera positions slightly with a jarring jump or time-lapse montage for no reason, all of which combine together to really hold this one down.
Overview: **.5/5
Filled with some rather troublesome technical qualities alongside a huge missed opportunity with its storyline, there are some big problems to overcome that hold it down over the few genuinely enjoyable aspects present. This is mainly for the ones who enjoy and appreciate indie-styled genre effort or those looking for this type of cheesy effort, while those that don't have any tolerance for this style should heed caution.
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