Director: Sj Hermann, Angel Bradford
Year: 2025
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Witchcraft
Plot:
Arriving at a remote lakeside cabin, a group of sorority pledges looking to go through the final round of initiation hazing to impress the leaders of the sorority, but when they realize the dark secret at the heart of the process must try to stop it from coming true before they all disappear.
Review:
Overall, this was a rather fun and enjoyable feature. Among the better aspects to be had with this one come from the solid setup that provides a great haunting atmosphere on top of being a fun starting point for introducing everyone. Getting to know who the girls are when they arrive at the house, undergoing the type of treatment they do at the expense of it being hazing rituals to get into the sorority, and seeing the conflicting personalities on display creating a sense of disdain for each other that brings everything together nicely. We get enough to get an idea of the kind of people they really are and why they joined the sorority, so that the humiliating rituals and tasks they perform have a strong character-building sense that contributes quite a bit to the atmosphere of the house, where the constant interactions make sense when they're going through an elimination-style competition. This is handled well enough to be a fun time overall and sets up everything to come later on quite nicely.
That allows this one to bring about some really enjoyable sequences involving the truth about what goes on in the sorority coming to life. From the early hints that the two leaders are doing something nefarious behind everyone's back, with just their comments and sly looks that are far more devious than expected, it causes one to start thinking that one has something is going on behind the scenes. That gets brought into focus even more when the situations presented here turn far more devious, as the rejected pledges are killed off in quite graphic encounters with the witches, using their powers to manipulate the victim to the point where something dark and brutal can occur, involving eating their victims or supernaturally altering their fates, so it has some impressive scenes here. They're fun enough as cheesy, graphic moments that it comes together alongside the frequent nudity from those well-qualified to deliver it for quite a lot to like.
There are some minor drawbacks that keep this one down. Most of the issues here revolve around the slow pace that manages to keep the pacing quite sluggish and dragging for much of the first half here. Since the interactions throughout here are based far more on getting the girls to meet each other, go through the initiation rituals and tasks that they're being asked to do, and not much in the way of genre content because of that, the film takes such a long time setting up those factors that it takes a bit too long before all the witch shenanigans start up that this has some serious pacing issues. The other big factor here is the bizarre series of twists in the finale, trying to make the whole thing make sense, but instead just complicating matters for the sake of creating a method of defeating the witches and getting a new way to continue things from there. These aren't big issues, but they are just enough to bring it down somewhat.
Overview: ****/5
A generally fun and likable indie effort, there's a lot to like here, which manages to make everything that much more fun to hold it up over a few minor drawbacks that are just enough to bring it down. Those with an appreciation for this kind of genre fare, who are curious about it, or who are fans of the creative crew, will have the most to like, while most others should heed caution with it.
Comments
Post a Comment