Director: Emily Aguilar
Year: 2021
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Taking a special vacation together, a group of friends rents out a house in the middle of the countryside as a relaxing weekend, but when they start disappearing they realize someone or something is living in the house killing everyone and must find the reason why to leave alive.
Review:
This turned out to be a rather solid indie creature feature. Among the more enjoyable facets of the film is the rather impressive storyline that offers up a clever and unusual take on the genre. Working on the idea of the creature living in the house and traveling by way of the piping which then signals how that carries into a series of rather fun twists in the latter half regarding the true origins of the creature and the reason for visiting. These are all quite enjoyable and help sell the storyline for the majority of the film.
As well, this setup works nicely to enable a fun series of attack scenes. The opening attack on the college student has a lot to like with the POV shots showing the creature stalking her unseen through the pipes before the fatal encounter in the laundry room generates a strong opening, working to establish the type of scenes to come. Knowing it comes through the water pipes and is usually associated with the creaking noises, this allows for some suspense to be built up prior to some later scenes including the bathroom ambush or the tunnel attack.
That goes rather nicely with the final half where it manages a fine mix of suspenseful atmosphere with intriguing action scenes of the creature being utilized. Due to the bodies being discovered early on and the race to understand the situation, these scenes of the group running around the house and encountering the creature bring about some really tense moments and graphic encounters. Given the series of twists and revelations that come to light here as well as the action involved in the escape, these aspects hold this one up over its minor flaws.
There isn't much to really dislike with this one. The main factor here that's exceptionally obvious is a complete lack of info about the creature since it's barely on-screen. Kept to the shadows save for brief glimpses and scant lines of dialog involving its origins, not only are we never given a clear look at it but the logistics of who it is and how it got there are total mysteries. As well, there are some issues to be had with the starting half where the build-up of their relationships comes at the expense of the creature which comes off rather slow for some. These here are the main problems though.
Overview: ***.5/5
A highly enjoyable creature feature even though its main flaw is the surprisingly incompetent monster, this is still an entertaining effort for fans of indie efforts. Those who enjoy this kind of film or intrigued by the setup should check it out, while most others who aren't into those aspects should heed caution.
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