Director: James Ashcroft
Year: 2025
Country: New Zealand
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Plot:
After suffering a debilitating stroke, a man arrives at a rehab facility to gain the strength to go back to work only to find the area presided over by the psychotic patient who uses a plastic doll to keep the other patients in check leading to a power-struggle between the two.
Review:
This was a bit of a disappointing if still intriguing enough genre effort. The fact that this one works as well as it does is due to the central setup involving the tense atmosphere depicting the power struggle between the two that runs throughout the film. The mixture of psychological and physical torments that he employs to try to gain control over the others at the facility, from unwanted late-night visits toying with the victim in their room to the encounters featuring the demented plastic doll that is genuinely creepy-looking involved in some generally sketchy behavior towards the other residents. These make for a solid enough setup that the early scenes offer the different attempts at exploiting the lifestyle and environment present which allows for a dark and ominous tone that carries itself throughout the rest of the film as it takes several intriguing steps to carry on.
That said, it does fall flat after a while in some rather lackluster features involving how these torturous activities are allowed to go on as much as they have. The whole thing about the night-time visits and interactions that take place not being caught on video camera or security guard rounds to undercut everything so these scenes of him going through what he does makes for a troubling time how it all never alerted others to what's happening. As well, none of the other residents raising alarm about it makes this feel rather underdeveloped how this goes on for as long as it does, especially when it starts to degenerate into an overlong series of debates with the two going head-to-head to each other that just drag the pacing down more than it should. These do manage to hold it back for the most part.
Overview: ***/5
An overall solid if somewhat flawed thriller, there's enough to like here that it makes this one a rather fun time that does have some issues keeping it down from what it could've been. Those who are fine with these kinds of issues, appreciate the style taken here, or are fans of the creative crew will have a lot to like here while those turned off by these factors should heed caution.
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