Director: Calvin Morie McCarthy
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Heading back to her father's house, a woman and her husband looking to stay there until the property is flipped but a series of strange incidents have them convinced that a story about the house sitting on one of the seven doorways to Hell is true and have to get away before it’s opened.
Review:
Overall, this was a pretty enjoyable if somewhat slightly problematic effort. One of the more likable features here is the rather intriguing storyline setup that brings together some genuinely fun elements. The initial idea of the woman returning to her childhood home and immediately encountering cryptic locals spouting equally cryptic warnings about the house and their staying there works rather nicely at getting things going on a strong note. The escalating sense of danger here, involving the different warnings and visions that they experience while being there, whether ranging from her visions of otherworldly beings trying to come for her or his encounters with the blind woman’s warnings, is all handled quite well here and serves up quite the chilling groundwork for what’s to come later.
With this storyline set up nicely, the film’s dive into exploring these various plot points comes together in a rather fun series of scenes. The inaugural possession moments are handled rather nicely with the inability to recognize this state and what they’d done while under its influence is quite fun, much like the series of visions and hallucinatory dreams that take place showing the possessed carry out malicious acts against their family or loved ones that has an extra touch featuring the whole thing taking place in vibrant red lighting. The wild finale, featuring the reveal of the house’s evil nature and the otherworldly beings at the center of the supernatural shenanigans, leaves this with some generally fun ideas and some solid gore to end things on a high note for quite a lot to like here.
There are some issues to be had with this one that bring it down. The main drawback on display is the film's insistence on utilizing the trope of the aggressive spouse trying to push the other past their comfort zone for no real reason. The whole concept of the house-flipping taking place is already a shaky enough proposition and her reluctance to do it resting on the personal trauma she has associated with the matter is already enough of a red flag to be cautious with following through on it yet him barging through looking to get the thing finished at any cost is the root cause of everything. This kind of annoyance at doing anything is somewhat infuriating by pushing things to happen when they don’t need to. Alongside the overly familiar storyline present with the film cribbing bits and pieces from several similar entries together, there’s not much else to dislike here.
Overview: ***.5/5
A generally enjoyable genre effort without too many issues, there are plenty of likable factors at play here that manage to move this into a solid and worthwhile indie effort. Those who appreciate this kind of supernatural-heavy genre effort or are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here while those who are turned off by the flaws should heed caution.
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