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Here's a little gem of a movie. The simple, yet effective plot is about a writer who gets writer's block and goes to a retreat to help with that, but things don't go to plan as she is trapped inside with a psychopathic robot.

Be under no illusion, this is a slow burn and if you're looking for action, i'd advise looking elsewhere, but if you want an original, intriguing thriller, than look no further.

Yes, there is a very small cast and obviously low budget, but it doesn't really effect the movie too much and the acting, especially by Heida Reed, who plays said Robot.

What i liked most about this movie though, is the way it parallels the story the character is writing with the story the film is telling. Also watch for the credits, because if you have good eye-sight, there's a little cue to what it was all about.

A good engrossing film spoiled by incomplete end. Although it becomes repetitive, the viewer is hooked to it just to see how it ends.

And that is it - The end never happens. The story suddenly ends leaving viewers with no answers at all for dozens of questions that are relevant and obvious for any film - How can an AI operated center stop working, and no one attends to it for one month or even more? What had happened if Claire didn't finish the story - would supplies have all been consumed and she die starving? There is bound to be some human supervisor somewhere keeping tabs on how long the supplies are going to lost and he/ she should have been worried about occupied rooms and should have come enquiring. Whether the novel get published? How was it received by readers? Did she publish it under her mother's name to make amends?

Actually, I had thought that the entire Rita's "I cannot open the door till the story is finished" thing is actually the center's method to force Claire to write up the story, to bring anxiety to her, to bring depression to her, so that she is forced to overcome her writer's block. But that was not so. The film just ended.

Claire has writer's block, is facing a deadline from the publisher, and can't finish. She decides to go to a retreat to finish her book. It is totally run by AI. Henry is her concierge, and Rita (android) is her personal servant. Everything is stocked in the way of food and wine as she requested, and the stay is for 30 days. Henry is a hologram. Then a glitch happens, and she is trapped in the unit. There are flashbacks, and she had a terrible childhood. Her mother considered herself a writer, but couldn't get any place to accept her stories. And she was locked in the house. That is the parallel, and the only way she can get out of the unit is to complete her book, and the AI decides if the book is finished, so tricks are not working. Might make a good 30 minute episode but not a full length movie.

We've seen it all before. The AI traps a woman in the house thing. We saw it in The Demon Seed and Vau and a few others as well. In this version of that story they intertwine it with a story of maternal abuse and imprisonment of the the protagonist in childhood.

It's an OK film, but that's all. The acting and production values are ok but the action feels padded out and I got rather bored about halfway through.

Maybe with a bigger budget and better directing talent it could have been something instead of the bloated short story it is.

Stop reading now. Ian padding this review out because I have to write six hundred words.

This film should have been called Writer Blocked and be an episode of an anthology like Outer Limits or Twilight Zone. Then the fact that it only had two ideas the entire length would have made sense and the titles should have been funny. I have no problem with the actors, direction or production values. It was just stretched too much to fill a feature film (much like the lead character should have done).

I can't even mention details of the plot because I can't avoid spoiling those two basic premises of the story. Given that it is either one of those Covid-made films or another thing inspired by Moon, the entire cast is one actress and four supporting roles. It really is barebones.

Bottom line: it might be entertaining if you are doing something else at the same time. Otherwise it drags a little too long.