Director: Joe Hollow
Year: 2025
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Psychological
Plot:
Trying to work on a new manuscript, a writer also dealing with the unfaithfulness of his wife as he completes his latest work, is drawn into a nightmarish world involving a demonic creature tempting him and several others around him into a dangerous cycle of guilt and despair.
Review:
Overall, this was a fairly strong psychological genre outing. Among the better features here stems from the way his one takes a seemingly cliche and unoriginal concept and brings about a slightly more intriguing spin on the material. The concept of a writer going out to a remote cabin in the middle of the wilderness to fixate on a big deadline approaching for his latest book is a somewhat staple idea of the genre, yet here this one goes for a different source of the torment, where it starts delving into others going along with him. The secondary consequence of the infidelity rumors in their marriage, making them difficult to get together while working on his book, is a fun addition to the whole thing, especially when added in conjunction with the torture being inflicted upon the lone woman in the hotel room that is interjected in the middle of everything. This spiraling out of control that happens during the film is a great touch that makes everything that much more intriguing for how it plays out.
This occurs through a spectacular series of interactions that focus on the unnatural ability of the demonic beings to weave in and out of reality in fine form. The look and concept of the demons being a hulking, masked figure with the same mindset of a deranged S&M practitioner while the cackling cheerleader-like assistant dancing around in the background while there’s a series of psychologically-triggering activity or threats playing out in the lead-up to the whole thing being simply means of the guys’ twisted imagination playing with him has a lot to like. The setup provides the opportunity to generate some chilling and uncomfortable moments that take place here as the different tortures start to become more graphic and brutal, especially when it starts to wind the secondary storylines together, which is handled finely enough with the solid effects to bring it all to life that making for a lot to like here.
There isn’t much in the way of drawbacks to this one, but it does have some slight factors holding it back. The main issue here is the seemingly bizarre idea of having the couple together at the cabin while they’re going through a rough patch in their marriage, while he’s also spending time trying to meet a deadline for his latest novel. That seems somewhat counterintuitive, where the goal is a definite distraction to keep him there, dealing with one issue, which deserves its own space, instead of dealing with it at the same time as the writing. That does make the whole thing somewhat scattered and disjointed where it’s not needed, and that also extends to the other issue with the convoluted finale, where its scattered resolution comes about trying to honor all sorts of different storylines, which causes it to feel bloated with several different resolutions instead. These factors are enough to drag it down overall.
Overview: ***.5/5
An overall strong psychological genre effort, there’s a lot to like here, which keeps this one enjoyable enough to overcome the few issues on display against the film. Those with an appreciation for this style or who are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here, while most others out there might want to heed caution.
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