Director: Louisa Warren
Year: 2022
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Taking a trip out to the countryside, a woman joins her friends at a mountainside cabin to enjoy a holiday together, but she soon comes to believe a stranger that's shown up at the house is there to threaten the children staying with them and tries to save everyone when the intruder becomes malevolent.
Review:
This one turned out to be somewhat of an odd change of pace in the series. Among the brighter spots here comes from the generally intriguing setup that offers a fine motivation for everything. As has become a tradition in the series, the trip out into the countryside and getting everyone out to a remote house where the being can begin the rampage offers the kind of comforting familiarity while also doing what it needs to get to know the group quite well. From the interactions at the house to the bar they frequent in the middle of town, there's a lot to like here while also getting enough on the group to make them likable.
As well, there's also a lot of fun here with the attack scenes which are quite brutal. The early attack on the mother during the flashback is a fine starting point, while the attack on the house where it ambushes the couple getting out of the car and confronting the killer on the driveway serves this well enough while dealing with the assault on the house. Alternating nicely between ambush encounters to generate a shocking kill as well as hard-hitting torture scenes designed to inflict trauma on the mouth for tooth extraction, these are generally fun and focus on enough to like here that it has some positives to make it enjoyable.
There are some problems to be had with this one. The biggest issue with this one is the rather bizarre change of course that occurs where it changes up the purpose of the villain and their origins. Rather than being a spirit summoned by a cursed book, this one changes it around to be a masked human killer who has a tooth fetish and had electron an insane asylum. This change of origin status is quite confusing as the original remark about it escaping from an asylum was only through one line of dialog so obscure it's easy to miss so the entire purpose of this being tied into the franchise seems flimsy and incredibly tenuous at best.
The other big detriment here is the generally sluggish first half that doesn't have much going on. Like most of the other entries here, it takes so long to get going as nearly everything here keeps the action off-screen which includes the group getting together or the exploits of the killer lurking around the house. However, rather than doing anything all they do is continue to make phone calls of a threatening nature towards her which is fine on its own but is repeated often enough that it wears out its welcome without doing anything extra alongside the idea. Those are really all that hold this one back.
Overview: **.5/5
A somewhat problematic if stll enjoyable enough franchise entry, this was a watchable enough variation on the formula although it has some bizarre franchise connections that might be troublesome for some. Give it a shot if you’re okay with the stylistic changeover or are fans of this particular type of indie effort, while those who are favorable to the earlier entries in the series and not sure about the new style might want to heed caution here.
This review ran as part of our 2023 Women in Horror Month celebrations. Click the banner below to check out the rest of our month-long celebrations including various reviews and interviews:
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