Director: John Pata
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Trying to find more content, a group of urban explorers decides to visit a haunted mental asylum that no one else wants to, but the more they stay there for their videos they come to find that the black mold in the facility may not be responsible for the visions they face of their greatest fears.
Review:
This one wasn’t that bad for what it is. One of the finest features here is the impressive setup that generates a highly entertaining time in a genuinely creepy atmosphere throughout. Building off the workable main setup which focuses on the couple going through the abandoned buildings and finding their potential target in a derelict building left empty with tons of ragged clothing, decaying furniture, and decaying artifacts left behind that once signaled someone lived there but not recently, this allows the storyline to generate a rather creepy and chilling tone inside. The backstory of the location ties in immensely well with its physical appearance, giving everything an appropriate context so the whole idea of something creepy happening in a creepy location that no one can be sure is real is not all comes together to generate a kind of impressive setup for everything to work off of.
As they continue around the facility and start to encounter a series of weird events, there’s a lot to enjoy here. The first instances that something’s happening with the idea that the facility is making them hallucinate various dreams and memories of their past, the introduction of the squatter living there who captures them and starts trying to screw with their minds is a fine way of going about bringing in the plots in the second half where they’re so at odds with each other the situation rapidly deteriorates. As everyone is at odds with everyone else due to the stress of the situation and the hazardous location they find themselves in, this all sets in motion a frenetic final half as the whole idea of not knowing what’s real or not means that the encounters with the scarecrows, the stalker chasing them through the hallways of the building or the hallucinations of their past coming to interact with them has some worthwhile elements presents. These are all enough to make the film likable.
There are some issues with this one that do bring it down. The main detriment here is the unnecessary decision to include the squatter who lives in the building as this doesn’t end up adding anything to the film. His inclusion in the film stalls the momentum considerably with the unnecessary stalking antics, holding them captive in his living quarters, and taking the focus away from the far more intriguing idea of the building coming to affect their health and well-being by going far more into repeated conversations about their past influencing how they react. It’s not in the slightest bit interesting or chilling and only enhances the running time. That does come to pass in the other factor here where a lot of the encounters do get drained of their genre thrills with the way it plays out with everything here turning into a confusing mess rather than anything, and overall these issues all come together to bring this one down.
Overview: ***.5/5
A rather fun if somewhat flawed genre effort, this manages to have a lot to like even though there are some drawbacks to be had here which do drag the film down overall. This has enough to like for fans of this kind of indie genre feature or fans of this particular brand of psychological-heavy effort, while viewers turned off by these factors should heed caution.
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