Director: Maxwell Morro
Year: 2026
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Cult
Plot:
Years after escaping a deadly cult, a man asks his estranged son to help him locate a missing child for the cult that is lost in the surrounding woods, forcing them to enter the hallucinatory field of the dangerous cult and their brutal powers to stop them from carrying out a deadly agenda.
Review:
This was a generally disappointing and underwhelming effort without much going for it. Most of what makes this one worthwhile is the sense of atmosphere and theatrics within this one, as its series of striking visuals is where it works the best. The whole idea of the cult’s ability to manipulate their surroundings and influence what’s going on around them means that the series of hallucinations and visual gags to either scare away potential threats or offer an exercise of their power come off incredibly well here. The series of physical manipulations involving the various forces of nature to hinder the journey he and his mother are embarking on to stop the cult or sacrificial rituals that are needed to help fulfill their plans features some intense moments that are quite impressive. Filled with some creative ideas to get these realized and some unique creature designs to showcase their powers, it helps to make their powers feel all the more imposing and worthwhile, holding this up overall.
However, there’s also a lot of drawbacks with this one, mainly focused on the general lack of storyline here. This doesn’t have much going on that really maintains a consistent plot, as far too much of the running time is spent on mentioning the history of the father or the other woman’s connection with the cult, as they seem to know what’s going on with the leader and what he’s capable of, yet none of those are given the in-depth nature required to sell them even more. It feels like this is based on a history that’s supposed to be inferred based on everything that’s given, but it just resorts to endless amounts of scenes requiring them to run around the forest trying to evade the different figures and summon spirits after them. As well, there’s also an issue with the finale where it tends to just end without a clear resolution regarding who won or not, and the whole thing is quite frustrating trying to figure out what’s going on, which holds this down overall.
Overview: *.5/5
A watchable, if overall frustrating, folk-horror feature, there’s some likable elements to this that help hold it up over a series of disappointing and detrimental factors that keep it down. Those who aren’t bothered by these drawbacks or who are curious about it will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed extreme caution.
Comments
Post a Comment