Director: Scott Walker
Year: 2023
Country: New Zealand
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
After his mother's death, a man and his family head to the property they've just recently inherited and set about trying to repair it while they move in, but when they realize that a deadly creature is living on the property inside of a local water well must try to stop it before it escapes.
Review:
Overall, this was a pretty solid if troubling genre effort. Among the films' better elements here is the rather fun setup that allows this one to generate a fun overall feature. The familiar setup of the family coming into the property through an inheritance is all fine enough despite that overreliance on the trope, providing the key to get them out to the location while being unaware of the creatures' presence while there's a lot to like beforehand about them discovering the state of the house and surrounding property. With the discarded, decayed look and general unused state it's shown, there's a fine atmospheric touch featured here that goes along with the hints of the creatures' existence seen in brief glimpses or series of howls in the distance.
This provides the launching point for a pretty decent slate of attack scenes with the released creature. As the slew of flashbacks starts to clue us to the real point of its history and connection to the house, there's a nice base-work laid for the later attacks which come off rather well. With the first encounters taking place in the surrounding woodlands before centering on the exploits within the tank where it's found to live, these all give off a rather creepy atmosphere with the darkness and isolated location bringing about some enjoyable encounters with the real estate agent, an unlucky police officer, and a later quest to try to stop it inside the tank. These are kept frantic and tense with the practical effects shining nicely enough to give the film some worthwhile points.
There are some big issues here that do hold this one back. One of the main issues here is the rather staggered pacing that makes it a chore to get through the first half here. With so much of this part of the film focusing on the family arriving at the property, learning of the condition it's in, and trying to get the place suitable for them to stay, it takes an incredibly long time before the creature starts to attack even if we know it's there through several brief bits of it snarling or growling in the distance. This also leaves the film with little time to explain what they are or where they came from as the creatures' origins are a complete mystery with no hint as to what they are or what they're doing on the property so this aspect can be slightly frustrating.
The other big factor here is the films' seeming reliance on stupidity to keep the characters in danger far longer than necessary. Rather than immediately warn others of the creatures' existence once the remains of a victim have been found, the whole incident is wiped away and forgotten about much like the other scene where a character is there to witness an attack but chooses not to do anything. The outcome of that sequence also features a police officer failing to report in or have back-up sent when that occurs is another clearly infuriating sequence with very little logic shown to take place. As well, there are also bits where investigating issues with the house caused by the creatures is done simply to put themselves at risk, and when combined with some unnecessarily dark scenes brings about its big drawbacks.
Overview: ***.5/5
A generally solid and enjoyable creature feature that has some issues, there's still enough to like here that it can hold itself up over some pretty big drawbacks. Those that enjoy this kind of genre effort or are just creature feature fans in general will have a lot to like here while those that are turned off by the flaws featured here should heed caution.
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