Director: Jon Wright
Year: 2023
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: The Little People
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Having inherited a remote house, a London couple moves to the Irish countryside to take control of the property where they’re told stories about the locals in the area who are protective of the house and surrounding which is soon required to save them from a dangerous invasion.
Review:
Overall, this one is quite enjoyable and likable. Among the more likable features here is the highly effective setup that generates the kind of intriguing storyline that drives this alone. Initially offering up the type of motivation for the move to the countryside and accepting the inheritance, the early reaction to the type of community present there with the superstitions and feedback to what they’re trying to accomplish living at the house, and the bizarre ritual that they have to accomplish in order to appease the local spirits that are said to live in the area, this setup is quite fun and manages to get a lot of fine details right so that it can slowly introduce the idea of the demonic entities that are at the center of their behavior. Combined with the sidestories about the house being under construction with the abusive family and the way these all intertwine with the existence of the creatures, the setup to this one comes off quite well.
That provides a great background for the type of action featured here, giving this a fantastic finale. Since that’s where a lot of the action of this one resides, the majority of this section brings the creatures out which is handled incredibly well keeping them on-screen as a practical effect even with their diminutive size being taken into account. The action that sets up around the house is truly enjoyable with the type of intertwining storylines involving the builders coming to get revenge and breaking into the house, the chaos of trying to get out of the situation, and finally having the creatures arrive as protection which serves this well as they start preventing the brutality from going further which ends up generating some fun kills and gore in the process. Due to how much fun this series of confrontations become trying to tie together a series of great storylines, there’s a lot of fun to be had with this one to hold it up overall.
There are some issues here that do hold this one down. Among the biggest drawbacks come from the pacing which manages to keep a lot of the creature action off-screen for the first two-thirds of the running time featuring way too many instances of the couple being subjected to trauma and mockery for what happened to him previously or trying to get acclimated to the area that it restricts the creature action to that final act where it’s already quite apparent what’s going on. Rather than give glimpses of what’s going on spread liberally throughout here to break up what’s going on, the other scenes here give off none of that as the creatures come about completely the opposite of their stated origins with them appearing as protectors of the land rather than spirits to be appeased and placated to since none of that happens which leaves it somewhat odd that they would act the way they do. It’s about all that holds it back, though.
Overview: ***.5/5
A solid and generally likable creature feature, the main flaws here don’t come off too detrimental in the long run which gives the positives here come off quite likable and fun. Those who are fine with the negatives on display or are genuinely curious about this one should give it a shot while those who are slightly turned off by these factors should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment