Mid-Century

I had high hopes, believe it or not. The concept was clever enough. I like this emerging Airbnb gone awry genre, having enjoyed Gone in the Night and The Rental. I thought watching this with friends just before Halloween would be great. But boy, was I wrong.

The first 30 minutes are your standard horror movie build. But then it just gets strange. There are flashbacks, ghosts, and a pseudo-psychedelic trip that makes no sense at all. The storyline falls apart.

Our friends left halfway through.

I kept watching but was so perplexed and confused after they revealed that what was happening was ghosts taking over the living. The living were acting out on the ghost's behalf. What?

I turned if off with 15 minutes left. I couldn't care less how the story ended at that point.

I hope our friends forgive us.

Despite Having 2 well know actors, I actually Really like, Dern and Lang! This was just SO MUCH SLOW and Stupid Garbage!!! I think these 2 seasoned actors either did someone a favor appearing in this, or were bored and just wanted something to do, Obviously Anything to do!!! Waste of their talents!!

I gave it 2 points for the beautiful architecture of the Mid-century homes I am familiar with from my youth.

But, Such a BAD and Boring SCRIPT!!! Could have been a decent movie with a Better script and much better actors, because I didn't recognize anyone and they were so emotionless and making constant stupid horror cliché choices! For a Doctor and Architect, I found the 2 leads (couple) to be Really lame! But I'll take that Thunderbird, Please!! ;D

The houses and 50's style clothing and beautiful cars is NOT a good enough reason to WASTE almost 2 hours of your life on this Tripe!! You've been warned!

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?

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 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.