Director: Adam O'Brien
Year: 2026
Country: Canada/USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Possession
Plot:
Arriving at a remote house, a woman intending to be a part of the hospice care for an elderly patient starts to feel unnerved when a series of visits by a stranger becomes decidedly unnerving, slowly revealing the truth that her patient has become possessed and forcing her to help the woman.
Review:
This was a rather likable and effective genre effort. Among the better factors with this one is the immensely thrilling setup that provides this with the kind of escalating situation that proves to be quite enjoyable, getting some disturbing imagery going. The central setup, putting her at the house as a hospice worker to care for this elderly patient she’s been assigned to and slowly starting to warm up to her as they get to know each other at the start of their journey of care, allows this to get all the important information out of the way early on. Making it obvious how the two get along with the kind of interactions that are designed to focus on the intended care, bringing them closer together yet also highlighting this obscure atmosphere that’s quite ominous throughout here. With the majority of this rightfully being somewhat innocent at times but getting just slightly creepy along the way, getting the early hints that something might be wrong.
As the night continues, the series of interactions and encounters she has started to turn on her overall into something far darker as the main point of everything starts to become clearer. The first instances of something wrong with the elderly woman are when she starts speaking in tongues and the exaggeratedly fast movements around the house, creating the first points where something might be wrong but also managing to bring about the first start of the main craziness where the stranger shows up and begins making his comments and demands about being let inside that set up the main struggle for the rest of the film. With the revelations there involving plenty of genuinely chilling material when she’s left to her own devices and tries to survive the night against the increasingly unhinged and obviously possessed individual, the film becomes all the more intriguing and chaotic as the supernatural spectacle of these scenes becomes immensely fun within the cramped, atmospheric location, creating the film’s positive points.
There isn’t much wrong here, but it does have a few minor flaws. The main issue with this one is the seemingly sluggish and one-note pacing that runs throughout the middle part of this, focusing on the same series of interactions and misunderstandings that grow tired over time. Continually making it out to be that she’s going crazy trying to take care of the woman in particular, or that only he can be the one to help her, the sequences manage to build a genuinely creepy air about them waiting around for their true intentions to be revealed, but it’s all repeated so frequently at this stage that it never feels like it’s building up the way it wants to, keeping doing the same thing and dragging out the tension far more than it needs to. As well, the finale is immensely abrupt and just never really seems like it goes anywhere, just preferring to end without much in the way of real build-up or context as a means of finishing things, leaving this incredibly unsatisfying. Alongside some other low-budget limitations found throughout here, these all manage to bring this one down overall.
Overview: ***.5/5
Watchable enough for what it is, there’s some likable factors here that make this one quite fun at times, while also being let down by a series of small but detrimental enough flaws to keep it decidedly middle of the road. Those with an appreciation for this style or approach will be the most likely to enjoy this one while most others out there should heed caution.
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