Arriving at a remote mansion in the countryside, a woman hired to be a new maid for a mysterious family begins to witness the psychological unraveling that emerges once they welcome a stranger in the middle of a tense battle of sexual battle of wills within the household setting off a fierce battle to survive.
Overall, this was a standout Gothic-horror-style throwback. That it plays so well with these elements in a great manner offers the majority of the fun with this one where it runs through the style and tropes of the genre in fine fashion. The idea of the outsider arriving at a remote mansion featuring a mysterious family with mounds of secrets within them is the type of glorious setup that plays homage to the greats of the genre as the more things are unraveled and revealed the more it opens up the different elements deeper under the surface. With the secret rooms off-limits to others, a mysterious accident that claimed a life in the not-so-distant past, and a cryptic stranger looking to stir hidden feelings with repressed urges, this one works incredibly well at harboring that slow-burning tempo so crucial to the genre. On top of that, once the secrets start being revealed and the tension within the house gets turned up, the film becomes far more intriguing with how everything gets brought about. The search for the missing father and how that leads to the missing items, the desire to look into the closed-off attic that provides the clues about the ghostly visions within, and the arrival of the stranger who starts to instigate upheaval within the established couples all force this one along into the type of required tropes within the genre that move this along quite smoothly. These all lead together into a gloriously twisted and frantic finale where the devilish actions take place as the various forces here come to take revenge in their own means which provide some macabre moments through it all. The other really impressive aspect of this one comes from the stellar use of the influx of sexual content within here to prove their madness and insanity. As the situation grows darker and more depraved, the idea of how the different scenarios get brought up as the use of tempting each other with the reality of carnal desires strikes a major chord in the middle section here. Despite not being overly graphic about what's going on, the use of being open and frank with the sexuality at play where it deals with intriguing BDSM-type relationships or other types of relationships that take on a different air than expected with how they tackle the setup featured here in the final stages where this plays a major part in the action featured throughout here. All told, these all give the film quite a lot to like as while there isn't much to dislike here there are some drawbacks to be had. The main factor with the film is the excessively long running time that drags this one out far longer than it should be. It's far too long for its own good with several plotlines that really could've been told at a brisker pace, with the siblings trying to convince themselves something's going on or the numerous conversations about the nature of pleasures being the main ones which leave the running time more than it needs to be. It causes the maid to disappear from the middle of the film entirely despite being presented as the main character due to this bizarre treatment, and the series of revelations that come about are oftentimes way too much to take seriously as it all could've been taken down somewhat slightly. These are the few factors that hold it back.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity, and sexual content.
