Director: Claudia La Bianca
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
After several strange incidents, a woman and her friends decide to take a trip to help get her mind off her struggles, but along the way, they discover that she’s been possessed by a Native American spirit seeking revenge for various misdeeds committed against him in the past and must try to stop it.
Review:
Overall, this was a bit of an odd and disjointed if still somewhat enjoyable effort. Among the films’ brighter features is the central idea at play here involving the idea of the reincarnated spirit. The early incidents surrounding the repeated murder attempts and the drawings that signal something strange going on which is soon clued into the extravagant backstory of the cold open that shows what’s really going on gives this a fun enough starting point. The resulting lead-in with the fateful trip and heading out to the location where the original events took place that helps to speed up the possible connection with the reincarnation possession serves this well and makes some bit of sense.
That serves the film well when it gets to the crazy finale where all the action pretty much takes place. Being granted with some solid lead-up involving the ghostly warrior following them around while they’re in the house and getting some chilling moments forcing them to do things against their will, there’s a lot more to like here once it starts unleashing its full powers leading to some solid supernatural action here with full-on possession, manipulating bodies against their natural means and other gruesome acts leaving some solid gore and carnage amongst the chilling sequences. It’s just enough to raise this one up overall with some enjoyable features.
There are some pretty big issues here that drag the film down, though. The main issue here is a highly underwhelming and stifling pace that really makes it a struggle to get going or remain interesting throughout. Far too much of the film consists of the group hanging out around the house trying to make sense of her weird behavior or trying to make sense of who’s hooking up with who on the trip which isn’t that enjoyable or interesting to sit through. It’s all quite dull and uninteresting as no one is really that worthwhile nor does it provide the film with any kind of continuous supernatural attack with all this teen love-affair drama holding up the running time.
That ties in with the film’s other real issue of being way too convoluted for its own good. The idea of the film being laid out as a possession tale is given to us from the very start with the lengthy backstory about the figures from the past and their fate together as well as the incidents involving her as a child which clearly signal this as one type of film. However, a lot of what goes on here in the finale, despite how much fun and gruesome it is, feels out-of-place in this mix of ghostly romance and revenge from beyond the grave. Very little of it ties together in a cohesive manner and stands out as a result, which combined manages to bring this one down overall.
Overview: **.5/5
Somewhat flawed for what it is but still has some likable factors, this one contains a lot of elements both ways for positive and negative points leaving it an overall mixed bag of a film. Give it a shot if you’re unbothered by these factors or are curious about it, while most others out there should heed caution with it.
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