Director: Rich Ragsdale
Year: 2022
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Following up on a lead, a couple searching for her long-lost family ancestry is led to a remote Southern plantation under the guise of finally finding answers but find themselves the prey of a deadly supernatural cult using her for their demonic savior's rebirth and must try to get away alive.
Review:
Overall, this was a decent enough if somewhat mildly problematic entry. What works best for this one is the somewhat enjoyable and engaging starting point here to everything. The quest for understanding her family heritage and the unknown nature of what everything means to her gives this a strong start that's highly effective as their desire to understand that leads them into the obvious trap and subsequent threats by the cult. Their imposing nature and deadly powers provide a nice sense of eeriness that goes alongside their ruthless behavior and ultimately dark fate looking to bring a powerful demonic entity into the human realm which makes their encounters together that much more fun. The brutality doled out by their invasion of the house and the shortcuts through which they get the upper hand for their quest make for a deadly time here, resulting in some incredibly chilling scenes as well as some solid bloodshed along the way. These are what hold this one up for the most part.
There are some issues to be had with this one. One of the biggest factors here is the rather bland and dull pacing to start this one off as the first half doesn't have much of anything interesting going on. The various scenes of the two going through the community not doing anything to further the plot due to the purposeful dead-ends in their search that are set up to keep them there which is only exacerbated by his tendency to be argumentative and combative with the locals. This is carried over to the rest of the film where he comes off as wholly unlikable and just plain irritating to anyone and everyone around him even when trying to help since he's supposed to be the macho male in charge which just makes this part of the film so tough to get into.
The other factor here to get into is the rather unfocused action that transpires with the cult and their powers. Since they're clearly manipulating the events from the start with their ability to force hallucinations, bend the activities of others to their will, and are generally just capable of doing anything, why they're unable to barnstorm the house and take her makes this feel a bit underwhelming. They seem so powerful and in control of what's going on that their halted approach to taking her seems more like a convenience that the characters themselves acknowledge without delving deeper into. This would've gone a long way towards making this do something interesting than just have them stand outside watching them as well. The last issue is the use of several rather obvious and unrealistic cliches that pop up throughout here, making for a rather familiar feel at times involving celestial configurations and black magic that doesn't feel that original. These are the slight issues that hold this one back.
Overview: ***.5/5
A generally better-than-expected cult film that does stumble at times, that there’s enough here to pick itself up despite these issues makes this a watchable if unessential genre outing. Those that appreciate this kind of approach or are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here while those turned off by these factors should heed caution.
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