Director: Daniel John Lerch
Year: 2026
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Arriving at an exclusive boarding school, a troubled woman looking to get her life on track with the structured rules expected of her at the location butts heads with the students and faculty at the establishment, only for a strange killer lurking on the premises to complicate things further.
Review:
Overall, this was a massively likable genre throwback. Among the better factors on display here is the strong and overall effective setup, which manages to bring about a rather intriguing central starting point. The initial arrival at the school and being introduced to the cruel headmistress who runs everything with an iron fist, a series of equally cruel classmates willing to indulge in just about anything possible for their own kicks, and a faculty beaten into submission regarding fighting back serve this well to get everything going in the right direction. The different tactics accomplished here to get her to bend to their rules are tied into that rather nicely, from her special treatment at feeding time, while also overtly violating her during routine fitting checks, which continues to offer up a sense of unease at the location, which is fun to see play out.
The fact that everything here plays out in the exact kind of company where something sinister is hiding in the shadows. Featuring the lavish decor and ornate design of the buildings that contain that distinctive type of old-world style usually found in these high-class facilities, there’s a decidedly ominous air present throughout here, where everything is immensely fun to see play out as this tries to expose more of its secrets to her. Whether this is aided by the fine color scheme of everything that tends to offer up fantastic sequences, where blaring, multi-colored lighting schemes that harken back to the glory days of the genre, or the series of surreal, hallucinogenic visions and dreams she has where these strange, demonic images appear before her, there’s a lot to like here and it manages to hold this up rather well.
However, there are some drawbacks here that hold it back. The main issue with this one is that, for something that purports to be a throwback to a specific style of filmmaking in the genre, it doesn’t work as well in that regard and is quite weak overall. There’s not much in the way of actually dwelling on the aspects that make up the genre beyond the type of lighting tricks used to highlight the various hallucinations she has, as it misses the other requirements in the style such as the murder mystery setup, the lone investigator stumbling across the mystery, the clues leading to the killer’s identity, and many other small bits that help to enhance the genre overall. This is more about the strange goings-on at the boardinghouse and what the purpose behind it all really serves, giving it more of a focus on that aspect rather than the more overt genre qualities.
Still, even if that were the case, there are some problems here in how that comes about that hold it down. The fact that this is based on the exploration of the school and the different quirks about the students there means that it doesn’t have much in the way of being a genuine slasher effort, so this all feels like an afterthought rather than the main highlight. The killer has next to nothing known about it and is dismissed rather easily in favor of trying to accent this bizarre supernatural feast that is the main point of the film, moving that to the wayside in favor of these other elements. Likewise, more elements are missing here in the lack of impressive kills or other forms of assorted sleaze, where it’s far too restrained rather than diving into the excessive nature of the story, keeping this one down overall.
Overview: ***.5/5
A really solid and likable if somewhat flawed genre homage, this one comes across really well for what it is, even if some of the flaws here come about due to the missing genre content. Those with an appreciation or curiosity for this approach will have a lot to like here, while most others out there might want to heed caution.
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