Director: Abel Berry, Jennifer Stone
Year: 2025
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Opening a new bed-and-breakfast, the owners of the facility try to look past the location’s troubled history to start welcoming their new guests, but when the doctor is resurrected and begins killing everyone, it forces the survivors to band together to stop the killer.
Review:
On the whole, this was a solid enough and generally enjoyable genre effort. Among the best aspects here is the impressive setup, which generates a kind of wild energy that runs throughout. Offering the reason for the haunted nature and background of the property with the historical footage documenting the raid on the doctor’s facility and the eventual discovery of his nefarious studies on pain and human endurance that result in them overtaking his staff but killing everyone in the process allows for a great way to explain what’s going on. The eventual shift to modern day and the use of the asylum he was working at being turned into a new bed-and-breakfast rental property for guests to stay at that triggers the resurrection and return of the killer doctor figure during the opening builds upon this rather well as a building ground for this type of setup.
Once the setup has been established, the film works incredibly well at delivering the kind of slashing antics required of the genre. Armed with a great look featuring the ripped physique and ominous gas mask staring blankly at victims, this works well enough that there are a lot of fun encounters spread throughout here involving the returning killer coming back to slaughter everyone trapped inside. The initial possession of the rock band leader to set everything in motion and the eventual burst of interactions with the crazed doctor, where he proves invulnerable and sets out to knock out the guests hanging around, features a nice slew of scenes involving the killer’s varied style of kills, which all provide some cheesy moments. This leads into the finale, where it really ramps up the carnage, from cannibalistic demon nurses torturing victims and ripping them to pieces, haunting entities that appear to disrupt their plans, and the race against time to stop the doctor through witchcraft and explosive force that introduces some great effects and solid gore for a lot to like here.
There are some slight drawbacks here that hold this one down. The main element with this one is the series of storylines present that bloat the running time and make the central plot rather confusing. There’s way too much going on here where it introduces way too many figures in the house and what they’re trying to do, from the brothers looking to begin operating their dream venture with the few staff on hand, the rock band arriving for a cheap place to stay, the paranormal investigators looking to investigate the haunted past, the robbers looking to steal the money left behind, and the witches who want to conduct their resurrection spell on the property. With all this going on at the same time, as well as getting the time devoted to all of this, it makes the first half come together with a randomized sense of disjointedness, where it’s hard to remain invested in anything for much of the running time. Alongside some obvious low-budget limitations at times, these all bring it down slightly.
Overview: ***.5/5
A likable if somewhat scattered slasher effort, there’s a lot to like here, which manages to make this a solid enough genre effort over a few bit parts that do hold it down. Those with an appreciation for this type of indie genre effort, who are curious about it, or who are fans of the creative crew, will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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