Director: Ryan Callaway
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Ghosts
Plot:
Working as a babysitter, a young woman at a remote house in the countryside tries to help the charge in her care get through the night after complaining of a figure haunting the house which soon sets them out on a mission to figure out what's going on to stop the hauntings.
Review:
This was a fairly enjoyable kid-friendly genre effort. One of the better features here is the solid setup that doesn't do anything clever or original but still manages to be worthwhile enough for this type of feature. The beginning shows off how responsible she is and how she treats the opportunity to babysit the young charge with her handling of the questions and how the various events that happen around the house not only start the feeling of it being haunted but the maturity to be that quick to show how she works in this kind of situation is a great touch. The actual babysitting later on and how she and her friend visiting continue this nicely as this all goes through the kind of necessary showcases that proper mindset and nurturing setup that goes a long way to highlight her attitude while also getting small touches for the haunted background.
That goes quite nicely with the later scenes to bring about some decent enough setups to generate light but still chilling supernatural air. The first encounter in the woods starts this on a nice note, while the brief bits while they're goofing around in the house of the backstory flashback to explain the potential haunting are both fine sequences that start hinting heavily at the idea of something happening around the family. It goes on in this fashion to the final half where it starts to bring about the true nature of the haunting and how this is played up with the dream about the future chasing her through the house and later attacking the captive that is later revealed to have potentially happened which serves the final twist rather nicely that is surprising with how the particular figure is involved and gives this one some nice positives.
There are some issues with this one that bring it down. The most obvious issue here is the preference for spelling everything out with dialog rather than action so the pace can feel sluggish and dull. While there are points here where it starts to something interesting with the daughter bringing up weird incidents or the mother's weird behavior hinting that something is wrong, the lack of following through with a physical presence to pay these off ends up making the film overly talky and lacking with that genre fare. This is a result of the kid-friendly atmosphere that means there's never going to be a chance to play up the kind of content to put that into effect which is the case here since nothing really happens until the end and even then it's not as prominent as expected. It's not as bad as the film's dull pace but it still holds it back somewhat.
Overview: ***/5
A highly effective if somewhat slightly flawed kid-friendly genre effort, that this one tends to be worn down by its concessions to the lower age market shouldn’t be held in high regard for this overall. Give it a shot if you’re fine with the approach taken here or are looking for such a film in this type of indie style, while most others out there not into these factors should heed caution.
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