A man bringing his family to the funeral of his estranged father dismisses the offer of a charm to fend off the evil that lies in them thar hills. He may regret it ... if he lives.
Stylish captivity horror that keeps open the possibilities until close to the end, when it rounds off as a plain revenger in the city folk v hill-billy genre. The opening scenes are slick, the lead establishing the strengths and weaknesses of his character with charisma, and the family dynamic is well drawn as the pace takes us along briskly to the moment everything goes wrong. And then we're introduced to the evil, in the form of a chilling l'il ole lady, performed to perfection.
The cinematography and scene-setting are excellent, and the music is lively but never overbearing - plus a welcome blast of Screaming Jay Hawkins.
Plot-wise, the unknown fate of the family really raises the stakes, but when the time comes it turns out kinda bland. Towards the end the implausibilities start to overwhelm the story, and I got the sense the motivating event of the father's death (along with the flashbacks) was totally irrelevant.
It is a let down. Some of the best innovation in American horror in the past few years has come from the pain of slave descendants in a country that endlessly reforms its means of oppression. Jordan Peele's stuff is well known, but I recommend Spiral (2019) as well, and the first act of Antebellum (2020) is a must-see. But like Antebellum, this story just shunts the black hero into the place of a modern liberal only for him to self-deceptively play by the rules of the primitive antagonist, avoiding all the political and psychic insights that horror can act out.
Overall: Full of promise, but a bit meh.
Stylish captivity horror that keeps open the possibilities until close to the end, when it rounds off as a plain revenger in the city folk v hill-billy genre. The opening scenes are slick, the lead establishing the strengths and weaknesses of his character with charisma, and the family dynamic is well drawn as the pace takes us along briskly to the moment everything goes wrong. And then we're introduced to the evil, in the form of a chilling l'il ole lady, performed to perfection.
The cinematography and scene-setting are excellent, and the music is lively but never overbearing - plus a welcome blast of Screaming Jay Hawkins.
Plot-wise, the unknown fate of the family really raises the stakes, but when the time comes it turns out kinda bland. Towards the end the implausibilities start to overwhelm the story, and I got the sense the motivating event of the father's death (along with the flashbacks) was totally irrelevant.
It is a let down. Some of the best innovation in American horror in the past few years has come from the pain of slave descendants in a country that endlessly reforms its means of oppression. Jordan Peele's stuff is well known, but I recommend Spiral (2019) as well, and the first act of Antebellum (2020) is a must-see. But like Antebellum, this story just shunts the black hero into the place of a modern liberal only for him to self-deceptively play by the rules of the primitive antagonist, avoiding all the political and psychic insights that horror can act out.
Overall: Full of promise, but a bit meh.