Director: Joe Cornet
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Looking for some extra money, a woman accepts a position looking after an elderly woman in hospice care in a remote house and begins to suspect something is wrong while staying there and eventually discovers that a demonic entity is setting her up for a special ritual and must get away alive.
Review:
Overall, this wasn’t that bad of a genre effort. One of the film's better aspects is the fine build-up at the beginning that provides this with some solid introductory measures to what's going on. Initially giving the kind of proper greeting between the two that lets us see their interactions and behavior around each other that sets them off on a friendly note, this provides the instances of the film's creepier elements to come in as the more time she spends there the more unnatural and chilling the encounters get that provides the film with the proper setup needed to make these sequences work.
That allows the film to become quite fun once it lets the demonic secret loose and it starts moving into more overt genre territory. Featuring the initial stand-by of seeing things happening only to have it be played off as a product of an overactive imagination or unfamiliarity with staying in an old house like hers, the gradual reveal of the hauntings becoming more physical and targeted more towards her provides some intriguing confrontations with the demonic creature at the center of it all as well as providing some solid gore-gags for these moments. All told, these are what manage to work quite nicely for the film.
There are some issues that bring it down. One of the main factors against this is the rather obvious and unsurprising setup at play here for bringing her into the house, which is inherently familiar with what's going on. Rather than attempt to do something original or clever with how the whole haunting is going about, this takes an immediately obvious turn towards something seen coming from the very start. This is especially since it decides to start off with a sequence from the main attack scene as the cold open which is a bit of a disservice by helping to make what's going on clear from the offset.
That also leads to the other issue here where it’s far more than what it should be for a film of this type. Despite its length, there are some excessive scenes here that don’t really need to be, from the strange sidestory about the detective investigating his missing mother that brings him into the fold for little reason to the overlong revelation monologue that’s used to spell out what’s happening even though it’s already pretty obvious what’s going on so it falls flat. A bit more time discussing the implications of the paranormal that gets brought up could’ve been a way to do this, but otherwise, these are enough to hold this down.
Overview: ***/5
An overall solid indie effort even with some minor issues, this one has quite a lot going for it which makes this one quite likable for what it is as the flaws are enough to keep it down if not being outright detrimental. Those who are intrigued by the concept or approach here will have a lot to like while those that don’t appreciate these factors should heed caution.
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