Director: Brett Bentman
Year: 2026
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Heading out to a remote lodge, a group of friends looking for a fun place to hang out for the weekend head out to a remote house in the countryside to catch up and have fun, but are soon attacked by a mysterious, knife-wielding killer from their past looking for revenge against the group.
Review:
This was an underwhelming, if still somewhat decent, genre effort. Among the brighter aspects of this one is the rather fun starting point for everything that makes this one come together as a solid enough slasher film. Using the predictable but still wholly effective backstory for the killer, where she was a lonely, nerdy girl bullied by the friend group and tormented into a vengeful, murderous adult looking to seek revenge on what happened to her as a kid, serves well enough to be a fine starting point to the chaos of everything here. That this initial scene is a more than worthy bit of trauma-inducing action, which would scar someone enough to hold a life-long grudge against somebody, is a great start to set this up to the point of getting to follow the group when they decide to hang out at the lake house for a special group trip.
When the slashing finally starts, it’s all solid enough not to be a general waste overall. The first part of the trip, focusing on the psychological taunting and general hints that they’re being watched while hanging out, serve to generate some decent enough hints at what’s going on that the first strike is rather fun when she stalks the lone friend in the shower, abducts them, and then proceeds to offer up some mental and physical torture getting back at what happened to her as a kid. Later scenes, such as the double stalking of the investigating officers in the woods in separate attacks or the series of stalking chases around the lodge where they’re staying, set up some brutal kills as well as the fun finale, where everything is turned on its head, and the twists are given plenty of room to breathe. These all come together for some likable factors to this one.
There are some big issues here that bring this one down. The biggest issue here is the outright bland, sluggish pace that feels reliant on predictable, formulaic behavior for everything, which ends up heavily halting the film's momentum. The series of interactions here shows what happened to her as a kid when the friend group bullied her, and the desire for revenge that sets up the rampage later on comes across as predictable as soon as it appears, which slows the pace considerably. Even the scenes of them in the house going through their usual series of friendship group trivialities and personal issues that are supposed to make them likable, as if it’s supposed to overwhelm what we just witnessed what they did to the girl as kids, just drags the rampage out far longer than it should, so that the pace here is rather troublesome.
The other issue with this one comes from the wholly unbelievable sense of safety the group establishes while they’re being chased around the house, as the group displays some immensely idiotic sense of self-preservation in the scenario. There are way too many scenes where they either stand around arguing with each other about how stupid doing the right thing actually is, so that they don’t realize the killer is right behind them, taking place at several intervals in the course of the chase. Since the frequency of the attacks and failure to recognize what’s going on, especially with the inability to figure out the killer’s identity and motivation for as long as they do, it just makes them all the more braindead while we’re waiting. As well as some low-budget limitations that show up at points, these all bring this one down.
Overview: **.5/5
A watchable enough but problematic genre effort, there are some worthwhile factors to be had here, which make this better than expected, but there are still some big issues here keeping this one down. Those with an appreciation for this style or approach will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed extreme caution.
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