Director: Brett Glassberg
Year: 2020
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Awaking like usual for the holiday, a family trying to get through Thanksgiving are shocked to learn they’ve been targeted by a family of deranged and demented group of psychos and held hostage inside the house while they play psychotic games with the family until they finally decide to fight back against them.
Review:
This was a pretty decent and enjoyable genre effort. Among its better features is the absolute lunacy this brings up as an introduction to the depraved and demented members of the family which offers quite a lot to like. From the perverted grandparents constantly screwing each other, the hen-pecked husband who wants to get through the day without being insulted by anyone while his wife tries to stir his amorous affections, there’s a rather demented and off-kilter atmosphere present here which is only enhanced by the wholly unrealistic behavior of the kids who are just as off with the perverted fantasies and under-the-radar drug use making them out to be just as troubled. It makes no wonder why they tend to bicker and fight with each other based on this early setup and it’s all quite clearly matched by the antics of the intruding family who are just as deranged and even more psychotic.
That goes a long way towards making the home invasion even more fun as they manage to just come off as the deranged kind to be quite intriguing with the antics on display. Not just content to waving guns around and asserting their authority over them because of that, the way they take over and force them into depraved games for their amusement offers up some fun times involving the sexual antics with the two kids and taunting threats towards the adults. Featuring plenty of brutal yet smartly non-lethal torture tactics from being brutalized with their guns or chopping their fingers off in front of everyone while generally acting like a deranged group of psychos offers the kind of generally enjoyable. As it goes on and they start offering up different kinds of tricks to keep the family from getting an upper hand as they foil their escape attempts for help or turning the tables when they try to get their house back, letting this one get some nice bloodshed and sense of carnage when this goes along. The short running time also helps, giving this one plenty to like about it.
There are some issues to be had here which hold this one down. The main issue is the non-threatening group of psychopaths who are completely random in their actions, have no real game-plan and are not very imposing physically which is what requires the guns so anyone could’ve taken them in a fight and have a fair chance against them. That doesn’t inspire fear and a lame attempt to try to do so at the end is too little too late to try that, which also tends to feature the other flaw in the weak ending to this one. The wholly stupid notion of not pressing the upper-hand when they finally have that is completely asinine when they stand around holding larger weaponry against the dwindled and scattered psychos who are now fighting with each other that offers up even more points to press the advantage they never follow-up on. That it devolves into a gunfight is unnecessary and just moronic which makes it hard to root for them in that moment, which is all that really holds this one down.
Overview: ***/5
A fun home invasion effort with some generally depraved and psychotic group of people which is generally enough to overcome the few negatives, they’re not that detrimental in the long run making for a quite enjoyable time. Give this a shot if you’re into this indie style of genre effort or appreciate this kind of slasher film while those turned off by the flaws or the overall style should heed caution here.
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