Director: Cavin Morie McCarthy
Year: 2025
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural Slasher
Plot:
Following the death of their parents, a group of friends decide to take a trip out of their house for a weekend getaway to understand what’s going on, but the more they stay there, they come upon a weird game that summons the spirit of Lizzie Borden, who begins killing them one by one.
Review:
Overall, this was a fairly solid and enjoyable genre effort. Among the better elements present here is the strong setup that manages to bring together enough worthwhile factors into a serviceable feature. The gathering of the friends at the remote house to try to figure out what happened to her parents and find the supposed game that introduces them to the actual figure that sets them out on their interactions with the killer after playing it, which soon brings them into the path of the currently-revived killer’s spirit, gives this a strong start. It makes the friend group rather fun and likable with the way they make fun and joke around with each other, seem genuinely concerned about their welfare, and are quite fun to be around.
That sets the stage for this one to go through a solid enough series of hauntings and slashings involving the resurrected spirit running around killing off all it comes across. The general presentation is as a supernatural spirit, manipulating the world around it to avoid being seen until the last moment or powering others to carry on the fight for it, but it’s still rooted firmly enough in traditional genre material to be worthwhile. The opening attack on the couple in the house or the stalking of the one couple who insisted on performing the summoning ceremony gives this a strong bit of stalking powers to go along with the frantic final half that brings about some great chasing and encounters throughout the house. With everything here offering up some exceptionally impressive and graphic practical kills to tie this all together, that’s a lot to like here.
This one does have a few minor drawbacks that bring it down. The main factor with this one is the sluggish and draining tempo that takes quite a while before it gets to the fun parts. The first half here spends far too much time on the group going through the house, trying to come to terms with the loss of their parents, or getting to know each other, so that it feels dragged out and draining before they play the game and release the spirit. That is the other issue where it makes no real sense from scene to scene, other than for the sake of what’s going on, introducing ghostly zombie followers for no reason, acting like a physical being despite being a ghost in others, and offering no real consistency with what’s going on. Coupled with an ending that has little that’s sensible or logical, these come together to lower this one overall.
Overview: ***.5/5
An immensely likable if somewhat flawed genre effort, this one offers a few genuinely enjoyable and likable factors that are enough to hold this one up over a few drawbacks that are present here. Give it a shot if you’re fine with this kind of genre fare, are curious about it, or are fans of the creative crew, while most others out there should heed caution.
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