Director: Alexander J. Farrell
Year: 2024
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Living in a remote house, a family trying to keep their mischievous daughter in check with a strict set of rules to protect her from a monstrous being one of them has been cursed to become something far more monstrous than she could’ve imagined and tries to stop him from continuing.
Review:
Overall, this was a decidedly disappointing effort. Among its brighter aspects is the general setup of what’s going on managing to bring about some intriguing ideas as it gets spelled out. The whole idea of the family living alone in the woods, isolated except for a rare occasion where they interact with the nearby town for supplies, all the while keeping their daughter under strange and strict rules for no explanation makes for a strong starting point. Setting up the rules about not going out into the dark and minding the isolation of the house, not questioning what’s going on with the dead bodies around them, and keeping quiet about everything proves that something is going on, and her natural curiosity about it all against the adults’ wishes which leads to some tense confrontations as she tries to learn the truth. This leads to some tense moments and chasing here and there, but that’s really all it has going for it.
There are some big drawbacks to this one holding it back. The main issue here with this one is the decidedly underwhelming and barely there tempo that drags the pace of the film down to an utter crawl. Focusing immensely heavily on the family life for the first half hour of this one, showing their isolation at the house, how it all operates with the rules against the daughter discovering everything, and what the general discovery of what’s going on means that it never genuinely feels like anything until that point. It would’ve been fine had it done something with these scenes as the investigation from her curiosity is fun enough, but the repetitive nature and approach that keeps this going around in circles is a bit underwhelming, especially with the film already long enough as it is.
The other issue with this one is the sense of useless metaphorical symbolism going on that doesn’t have any interest or purpose at all. The central theme of horrific spousal abuse and domestic violence being perpetrated because that’s all the characters know is a solid idea in theory but it goes completely against everything that’s gone on beforehand setting this up as a genuine mysterious creature feature. Rather than dropping this into the expected route of a brutal, barbaric creature feature it tries to do something different with the material as a strikingly hamfisted metaphor that leaves numerous plot holes and questionable actions to suddenly start racing through your thinking back on why everything in here was taking place. It all undoes this to the point of barely feeling like a horror film at all.
Overview: 0.5/5
Boring, dull, and barely a horror film in the slightest, this one tends to offer up plenty of potential but is so strikingly mishandled that there’s very little of any worth to this one in the slightest. There won’t be a whole lot to like this one due to the bait-and-switch of its premise and its overwhelming flaws might be enough to keep all but the most curious out there from taking a shot with it.
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