A new stepmom is slowly driven to madness when a series of bizarre events occur while she and her two stepkids are stuck in a remote holiday lodge.
HORROR
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The Lodge (2019)Directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz
Written by Sergio Casci, Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz Starring Riley Keough, Jaeden Martell, Lia McHugh, Richard Armitage, Alicia Silverstone, Danny Keough |
The Lodge is nothing like I expected. The trailer made it out to be a rip-off of The Shining with seeds of Hereditary. Instead, it's far more of a psychological thriller and a look into how the past is never done with us, no matter how done we are with the past. This film touches on family drama, suicide, cults, religious iconography, and possibly even the supernatural. It's all about how you look at it, until of course the ending, which is just plain bonkers and dark as hell. Riley Keough gives a hell of a performance as a good person driven to the brink, and the two kids steal the show as complete and utter sociopaths.
Grace (Keough) is a new stepmom and she's having trouble connecting to her new kids Aidan (Martell) and Mia (McHugh), whose real mom recently committed suicide. So, Aidan and Mia have made it their mission to fuck with Grace, as they hold her responsible for destroying their family. When their father leaves them with Grace at a remote holiday lodge, the relationship is frosty at best. But when weird shit starts happening, and the three of them are thrust together to stay alive, Grace is reminded of her psycho-religious upbringing that continually haunts her nightmares. All of this leads to a finale that is incredibly dark and also extremely fitting for the situation. I won't spoil it, but it's insane. My only gripe with the film is the pace. It takes forever for the movie to kick into high gear. There's a lot of ambient camera, just filming hallways for aesthetic purposes. It's a bit pretentious, and really takes the audience out of the movie at times. But once the action starts, the audience is drawn in, just imagining the possible answers for what's really going in. I correctly guessed it, but I still didn't expect what happened. You'll just have to see for yourself. |