Mid-Century

Two minutes into this movie, and already I couldn't stand either of the leads. Stephen Lang is one of my favorite character actors, and I have no idea what he's doing in this Lifetime Channel-esque mishmash of bad acting and worse screenwriting. Cliches and stereotypes abound, all the bad guys are white, everybody in the fifties drove a Thunderbird and lived like the Cleavers, etc. Don't bother with this one. Two stars because at least Stephen Lang appears from time to time to remind one why they might have mistakenly thought this movie might be good.

Normally I don't pay attention to other people's reviews but they're all spot on. The intro credits literally go on for 15 minutes, I double checked someone else's review and they were right. The movie is well into the beginning but the credits just keep coming. The whole movie doesn't make sense. The acting is actually terrible. Doesn't even do a good job of bashing us white men which is the hot topic these days. Movies and shows ain't woke if they don't attack us. I don't even care about that. What's truly sad to me is I couldn't even finish the movie. I made it to an hour and just couldn't do it anymore. I love movies, even the cheap low budget B listed actors but this is literally the worst movie I've ever seen and the bad reviews are actually correct. What's the dudes name Tom? Not the old guy but the husband of the soon to be Dr? I recognize him from other stuff and no matter what role he does he talks exactly the same. I felt like I was still watching Salem which is a great show that he stars in. Hey there ya go skip wasting your time on this movie and watch the TV show Salem which is actually really good.

The story is straight forward and entertaining. Then it becomes all over the place as this one and that one possess whomever. It ultimately makes little sense as you watch trying to work out what the hell is going on. It starts with some nice classic cars and a nice 1950s neighbourhood. It's a movie that loses track of the story it's telling. There is nothing wrong with the story, but it's not told with clarity and precision. This makes for frustrating viewing. Bruce Dern is hardly even in this film even though he's billed as one of the main cast. That's either good or bad depending on what you think of his performances. Personally I don't like him much but it's more that he's got little presence on screen in whatever he does. It's a well made film but it falls apart in an obvious way.

Honestly if the acting had been anymore wooden it would of been a puppet show. When the credits are still showing up 15 minutes into the movie they're just distracting. Lets be honest they're unnecessary as they will be repeated at the end and if you get there then I can't imagine you reading them. It's just awful.

You want Stephen Lang then watch "Don't Breath" you want Bruce Dern then watch "The Burbs" because neither of them do very well here.

The first five minutes were the best. It had a great setup, amazing premise and potentially a cool idea, especially with reverse gender roles. Then, it just got goofy, and not in a good way. The writing is horrible, the pacing is off, you don't know who the main protagonist is and there aren't any jump scares. The scenes that were meant to be scary weren't. The mythology they're trying to build doesn't make sense. They use Latin folklore but Germanic runes as well? Maybe a different director could have salvaged it. It doesn't feel authentic at all. Did the pandemic really wipe out good talent and gave rise to incompetent writers and directors?