Director: Gregg Simon
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
Looking for some adventure in her life, a woman joins her friends on a special visit to a supposedly abandoned house for a weekend party, but the longer they stay there, they come to believe something inhuman has joined them in the house that was held inside and must find a way to escape alive.
Review:
Overall, this was a lot more fun than expected. One of the better features with this one is the main setup at play which not only brings the group into contact with the house but also the release of the vampire. The friend group who decide on breaking into the house for the weekend and the exploits of their trip through the house while they stay there is fun enough for what it is, getting them out to the house and the series of interactions featured here bring about a fun sense of camaraderie that show off who they are and their relationships together in fine form. This goes along with the discovery of the stranger in the basement and what they plan to do with him which could potentially damage their weekend plans but fail to realize that he was a vampire until he’s targeted and turned one of them to then start working through the rest of the group.
This part here is where the film picks up pretty well with the turn and eventual series of encounters that take place. After the first night that provides the indoctrination ritual that officially completes the turn and signals the change against their knowledge, the resulting attitude focuses heavily on the idea of the vampire in their midst unknowingly splitting them up with snarky comments and pettiness while trying not to let them know what’s really going on. This gets blown out by the massively entertaining and over-the-top finale where it really lets loose with the vampires setting the party into a slaughter with their reveal and massacre at the party where they set about attacking the guests to a huge orgy of swarming action and bloodshed. With the main group left, it turns into more fun battles where the actions to stop the vampires revolve around the brutal brawling that goes nowhere due to their advanced strength and ill-fated confrontations that end up showcasing a special tactic of the vampires that get revealed with the big twist here that’s handled quite well. On the whole, these all make the film quite enjoyable.
There are some factors here that bring this down. Among the main drawbacks present is the seemingly bizarre means that the party gets introduced late in the film which makes no sense. A perfectly acceptable body count was present with the original group who came to the house and encountered the vampire so they didn’t even need to turn the one member, especially if some of the group split off before the end of the film. As a result, it makes the party come off as needless bodies but to then waste it all on petty arguing so the rampage has to happen in slow motion without taking advantage of the situation causing this all to be clumsily added together to try to add some horror to the situation. This all brings about the somewhat lackluster pace during the lead-up as it's not about the vampire killing them but more about the duplicitous games she plays instead so it doesn’t have much action until that big finale which are the few issues to be had with this one.
Overview: ****/5
A highly enjoyable vampire effort with a few drawbacks featured here, there’s a lot to like here which gives everything enough to hold itself up over several drawbacks that bring it down. Those who enjoy this kind of genre effort, are curious about it, or are intrigued by the creative crew will have the most to like here while most others might be turned off by this one.
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