Director: David J. Espinoza
Year: 2020
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Living out in the middle of nowhere, a deranged family use a bed-and-breakfast as a cover to attract unwitting guests to the place so they can experiment on their bodies, but when their activities start to draw unwanted attention from outside sources they try to keep their experiments a secret as they carry them out.
Review:
This was a pretty solid and somewhat enjoyable if slightly flawed effort. One of its stronger elements is the engaging build-up to this one with the slow-burn dynamic that sets everything in order. With an enjoyable start that gives the group a fine reversal on a home invasion attempt which gives an idea of their ruthlessness and criminal ingenuity to take them on and overcome the unprepared group. Since this follows them for a large portion of the film, their strange inner-dynamics come into play rather nicely as the series of attacks that show them seducing, drugging, killing and then experimenting on the rash of victims that show up in order to make their special age-reversing serum offers up a great deal of fun. The old-school formula here of following along the family and getting to know them rather than the series of faceless victims is a nice touch which makes the film feel quite fun with the information we get around here.
Likewise, the film scores rather nicely with the series of explosive outbursts that occur in the second half. With the rapid succession of guests that are shown being taken out and killed to be used for their experiments, the grand reveal about the nature and process to be utilized here add a dark nature to everything much like the series of familial relationships that are brought up which gives the process itself a much-needed boost. The back-and-forth nature on how to carry it out with the various acquisitions of new bodies to be used and the debates over the timeliness and necessity of the operation at that point which gives this one a rather nice back-and-forth series of twists that help to build the action up nicely. The low-key finale, which might be somewhat less exciting and frenetic than it should be but still manages to get quite a fun reveal included, also manages to work quite nicely with the inclusion of a solid theme on the importance of family that is slowly weaved throughout the film but becomes quite prominent in how much it plays into the action. Overall, these hold the film up for the most part.
There are some issues to be had with this one. One of the biggest flaws is an overlong and drawn-out pace which gives this a far longer running time than necessary with this running afoul of either unnecessary scenes or just going way beyond the point of necessity. Most of the meals they share or the luring in of victims who have arrived tend to be quite obvious in the latter part where it serves the film to include them but yet run on more than they should. It’s mostly the interactions with the various guests coming into play around the guests who tend to skirt around the unnecessary scenes with the idea about what they’re doing quite easily yet running on too long for its own good. This mostly comes about due to the rather clumsy narrative structure where it falls into a repetitive pattern where someone arrives and they tend to it only to have someone else arrive and the process keeps going so it can feel quite unnecessary to keep hammering that point home as many times as it does which is what makes this feel so long. Otherwise, there’s a lot to like here.
Overview: ***/5
With plenty of likable qualities and only a few too many scenes here that manage to make this feel quite a bit longer than it should be, there’s still enough here to be watchable if not a stand-out genre effort. Give it a look if this sort of film is an appealing trip or something that would sound enjoyable, while those who prefer more quick-witted films might heed caution with the running time.
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