O Chalé

The movie started out great, a visual buffet with horror subtlety sprinkled all around promising a visceral ride, the first act left me feeling excited with anticipation of things to come. The last act of the film wasn't bad either, delivering truly horrific anticipation of things to come, but nothing ever really manifested.

In the end, I believe the pace of the film is too slow for such a thin plot. The visual story stops being impressive after the firs act, the second act is way too slow, and the third act left me, and I believe much of the audience feeling rather disappointed with the flick.

In the end, if you're looking for a classic scare, I think the movie is not for you; if however, you enjoy visual story telling, and don't mind a slow pace, then it might be worth a shot.

This movie is relatively good. Movie goers cannot seem to watch movies for what they are now but constantly need to analyze and compare elements of the movie to other films. This movie is a little on the slower side. If you like slow building, psychological thrillers, this one is for you.

I'll get the major cons out of the way first. This movie suffers from the usual problem Hollywood film always seem to have -- no money to afford electricity. Most of the movie is shot entirely in the dark, so goodness knows what happened in those scenes. Also, one or two key bits of dialogue that explain what's really happening are totally lost to mumbling.

However, overall, this film really did improve on second watching. Once you know what the story is, you spot all sorts of little bits of detail that make the whole thing make sense. But more than this, my empathy with Grace, the protagonist and victim, grew exponentially during this second watch. She comes over as an almost wholly sympathetic character. Little things like the carefully wrapped presents she brings and hides make her rather loveable. Her love for her dog and what he represents to her is very moving. She's a very damaged person, but unfortunately for her, she gets entangled with other very damaged people and hell hath no wrath like grieving children.

There's only one jump scare in this movie, but it's a good one. The rest of the film is a more slow psychological horror about the power of grief and early childhood trauma. And human fragility.

I highly recommend this to anyone who likes their horror thought-provoking and real rather than shock-horror jump scares. This clearly borrows from Hereditary: almost shamelessly copies much of the atmostphere of that film with the dark house, the dolls' house, the cult, the dolls, the camera work inside the dolls' house distorting our perceptions.

Pretty good movie with strong performances all round.

I am not surprised at all at the negative reviews. This movie starts well, sets up the story well and then falls flat so hard it's like taking the popcorn out of the oven as soon as one pops - it smells nice, but in reality you're left with only hard, tasteless kernels.

Let's address the elephant in the room. This is NOT an intelligent movie. However, it does have enough pretentious cinematography to make some people think it is. That being said I am a fan of said cinematography AS A SET UP, but not as your entire substance. I have no idea why some people are calling this innovative as it simply isn't. Long drawn out shots of a darkened empty hallway or a window while someone frantically plucks at an untuned violin and radio-filtered whispers is neither ground-breaking not original. Yes, it's uncomfortable so overdoing it will elicit an emotional reaction, which some people mistake for the effect of good writing.

Now, beyond the elephant. The story goes absolutely nowhere. If the movie is original with anything it's that the ending is so mediocre and so little attempt has been made to make it interesting that it's a rarity in the genre. If you know there is no twist ending you can guess the finish a good 15 minutes after the word go. The characters are profoundly unlikable aside from the dad, who appears briefly at the beginning and the end. There is "creepy" scenes which go nowhere and have absolutely no explanation, nor do they contribute to the plot (I am looking at you 100 snow angels).

That being said I do appreciate movies which try to at least get part of the equation right and this one, as stated above, has a good first part. Now, if only movie-makers learned that you need to know how to finish a story too. So, while I wouldn't wholeheartedly recommend it, if you're into eating only the first couple of popcorns of the bunch and being disappointed by the rest, go for it. Just be warned - the moment you start asking yourself "ok so where is this all going" is the moment when you know the movie is well past its peak".

The Lodge has been a rather divisive point between critics and audiences, audiences have been more split on the film while critics have been more inclined to view the film favorably. This is not a movie made for a mass horror audience like the films made by Blumhouse or Atomic Monster, rather this is a character study with a no holds barred approach to its themes of lingering trauma and toxic religiosity. The film follows Aiden(Jaeden Martell) and Mia(Lia McHugh) who after the suicide of their mother Laura(Alicia Silverstone) live with their father Richard(Richard Armitage) and soon to be stepmother Grace (Riley Keough). Richard, needing to work through the holiday season arranges for the two to spend time with Grace at lodge in the woods that they frequent in the hopes that they will bond, but once there strange happenings coupled with the lingering resentment and bitterness felt by Aiden and Mia towards Grace for their mother's suicide a slow decent into terror begins.

The Lodge as horror film is very effective at building its mood and atmosphere. The titular lodge becomes a character itself with its empty halls, surrounding frozen landscapes, and generally sense of foreboding created by its minimal lighting and cavernous nature. Be it in the dark of the night or the light of day there is never any sense of comfort felt while in the lodge and a general feeling of unease permeates the film.

The characters aren't written with much in the way of depth, but they do effectively convey the feelings we expect given the circumstances. The crushing despair felt during the opening act's funeral, the mixture of boredom, restlessness, and unease felt during the second act, and finally the sheer terror and resignation that serves as the penultimate lead up to the films final moments. It's a movie where the minimalism is put to good use because it respects its audience enough not to through in a jump scare every few minutes.

The overall narrative deals with heavy themes of grief and religion as the two kids, Aiden and Mia, are devout Catholics as raised by their deceased mother Laura. Grace herself has distanced herself from religion later in life as her involvement with a extremist Christian cult left her with lingering trauma that serves as another point of contention between herself and the children. A key point in which the religious themes come into play is because the children are Catholic they believe their mothers soul will never be able to find peace.

The Lodge uses its themes of religiosity sparingly, and it's not so much of an indictment of religion itself, but more of the followers of said religions who twist what was once a well meaning doctrine into justification for acts of ugliness and barbarism that while not as explicitly graphic as your average Saw or Hostel film leave a haunting emptiness once we bear witness to the proceedings.

With that said however this movie will not be to everyone's taste. The movie is a slow burn with long stretches broken up by the occasional nightmare or sudden noise and there's very little dialogue among the characters so the audience will need to actively look for character in subtle interactions rather than through conversation. The films use of religious iconography may also seem insulting to some who feel themselves to be among the faithful but with that said I don't believe this film to carry any ill will towards the majority of Christians and it's more about those who twist the doctrine as justification for heinous actions. However the ending may leave some wondering where the film stands given where we eventually end up, but it does make a good topic of conversation for people to explore their differing views.

The Lodge is an effectively unsettling slow burn horror film that uses its minimalist aesthetics economically and effectively. From its effective performances to its barren landscapes and claustrophobic cinematography it'll leave viewers in a state of unease that makes them feel as though they're stuck in the titular lodge along side the characters.