Holistay

Holistay is an ultra low budget folk horror-thriller from writer/director Mary Patel-Gallagher- in her first stab at making a fiction film.

The plot revolves around a thief- and a mule that is trying to get her out of the country- who get double booked with an Irish couple at an airbnb...where things aren't what they seem.

As the place seems to be haunted by the dark spirit of an ancient pagan priest.

Unfortunately, 95% of the film is just mild drama, and banter between the two couples.

With the dark figure doing nothing more than lurking in the shadows.

What's really going on becomes pretty obvious by the time they bring the banshee into the picture.

So...any big reveal they might have had planned...ends up being more or less predictable.

It's all really quite boring...with a few laughable moments (at how cheesy things are).

But they aren't enough to save it from it's overwhelming mediocrity.

You find yourself hoping that there will, at least, be some sort of explosive finale.

Only to be extremely disappointed by what actually happens.

And left wondering...what was the point of it all?

1.5 out of 10.

Separately arriving at the same house, different couples who booked the same house through a rental agency try to make the most of the situation until it's resolved, but the longer they stay there together the more they realize that something supernatural might be behind their visit.

This was a pretty disappointing genre effort. One of the better elements of this one comes from the rather realistic means of getting the main concept going and setting everything in motion. The natural reaction of the couples double-booking the house and arriving at the house pretty much at the same time feels like a plausible enough occurrence to get them to the house and interact with each other. With this giving them the time to get to know each other that allows them to overlook the presence of the creepy figures hanging around the house and the strange disturbances that build up over time, this provides quite a solid background for the supernatural shenanigans to play out which is pretty much all reserved to the final half. That's when the real purpose of their visit draws them into a genuine supernatural specter that makes this come off quite well. That, though, is pretty much the issue with the film in a nutshell. It's not so much that the setup is bad as the realistic situation and the way it goes about isn't bad but the fact that so much of the film is wasted on potentially dull and uneventful dialog that just grinds the film to a halt. Offering endless scenes of the couples spending nothing but time yakking with each other about their relationships, their pasts, what they do in their free time, and other nonsense relating to how they got into the situation that there's hardly anything genre-based at all until those few encounters at the end. Featuring several twists that don't mean much of anything and very little atmospheric build-up that tends to make the scenario threatening due to all the time spent not focusing on that element being introduced into the story, it's what tends to undermine the film and hold it down the most.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.

When it comes to independent horror movies, it's either hit or Miss the director can go one way or the other there's no other pie and in this movie the director hits on all cylinders. The storyline the plot, and how everything unfolds is exactly what I look for when it comes to the horror genre and being able to keep my attention span is something that I totally look for. This Director in the film crew did a real good job with writing the story and allowing it to all unfold on the movie screen. I'm hoping there's some kind of way they can muster up a part two and make it just as creative as this one.