In Its Wake

While trying to decide what to do, a pair of friends on a weekend getaway come across a group of businessmen lost on their way to a party and decide to stop off at a remote cabin, but when they get interrupted by a demonic creature's rampage band together with a fallen priest to stop it.

This was a problematic if still somewhat decent enough indie effort. Among the film's bright spots is the generally fine creature action that takes place here. With the practical effects being utilized more often that not, even with the deaths on display, it helps to add a fun cheesy attitude to the scenes of the creature running around the wilderness attacking the partygoers hanging out in the cabin, the couple screwing in the outhouse, or the battle with the married couple at their house that includes a fantastic stalking scene through the house to add a little bit of variety to everything. The finale, bringing together some occult action and figuring out some rather impressive twists to what's going on, is what provides the most to like with this one. That said, there are plenty of problems with this one. One of the biggest issues here is the overwrought and oftentimes unbearable cast that we're forced to follow which makes this such a hard one to get into. The different groups that we follow are, individually, not that interesting or enjoyable to b around spending the majority of the running time arguing about their plans getting turned around or yelling at their comments for being a moron. Hardly any of these makes for agreeable behavior to be around, and when put together in such a lazy manner as it does here how they come together to come under attack by the creature with such a lazy piece of writing as it does here manages to give this one such a troubling start to things. That goes into the other issue with this one in that it's far too dull and plodding to make any kind of impression here. The convoluted plot and numerous characters on display are at fault here, making for a lot of the running time keeping its various issues intact so it all comes off without much in the way of excitement unless the creature is attacking. It's not until the ending stages that this one really generates any kind of traction in that regard but it's all too little too late for this one with the unnecessary side-stories and tangents getting introduced which leaves quite a lot of the film to be uninteresting overall. When combined with the overall cheapness on display with its low-budget origins, these features are enough to lower this one quite a bit.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity, and drug use.

What sane writer/director starts a horror film with 8-10 minutes of hymns followed by somber, soft spoken, prayer??

That alone sets up the tone of the film... and it's bad.. really bad...

After the far-too-long prayer sequence the viewer is treated to a music montage for the opening credits that also seems to go on forever...

Then the viewer is treated to just a slew of poor to dreadful acting and overly unnatural dialog delivered in the most stilted manner possible. NONE of the dialog is "natural" in tone. As if it was written, then filmed - without any scrutiny.

The "horror" aspect is primarily growling noises followed several several times with someone being dragged off into darkness... then some splattering. This happens MANY times.. same relative scene.. different character.. Repeatedly. Any indication of what may be dragging people off are done with quick flashes of, what appears to be, a dollar-store plastic mask and glove. Seriously.. looks like a cheaply made halloween costume.

I'd point out constantly rubbing one's teeth with one's fingers is NOT a sign of cocaine use. Perhaps a bit of research is merited before filming.

It's just utterly dreadful drama.. with very sparse sprinkles of very bad "horror" consisting of very bad effects.

Lots of intentionally proliferate profane language, one scene with nudity, lots of (clearly) fake blood.. and a truckload of just time-filling bad drama , acting and background music (left over from the 80s).

Really not worth anyones time or attention.

--- Pass ----

And here we go with another Uncorked pic made for IFC. The majority of these are horrible so I am certainly not expecting much.

So a church opening scene, then we get a dumb conversation from a 'manager' in a diner. -1 Star

Why are these 2 women even sitting at the same table with these 2 idiots? Then apparently some bad actor bad guys are also in the diner...having their own dumb convo.

So the 2 groups have a spat. Then you got all 3 groups doing something. The Pastor group, the dumb quartet group and the 3 lame bad guys group. -1 Star

Bad acting, bad dialogue and bad story so far. Oh a girl took off her top and actually didn't leave her bra on! We like that in our horror movies! +1 Star.

Okay so there's a creature that looks like the Star Trek monkey critter (man in a monkey suit_) killing people and meanwhile Pastor Dippy is giving a speech to dumb listener #67. -1 Star.

Okay, when pastor fool is talking to the survivors, and the creature they called 'the drude' comes in and starts killing people and everyone just stands there looking at it (the camera), I'd had enough. Turned this one off with 8 minutes left. Absolute Garbage.

1/10.

I was immediately drawn to this movie when I saw the cover. It was something that was very reminiscent of an 1980s horror movie, and the fact that it had "inspired by the work of H. P. Lovecraft" on it was definitely a selling point.

Sure, I had never heard about this 2023 horror movie from director Lee Foster. But of course I had to watch it, as it was a horror movie that I hadn't already seen, and with it apparently being based on the works of my all-time favorite author.

However, while "In Its Wake" was certainly a movie with ambitions, it just wasn't a good movie. The storyline was messy slob of writing, and it just failed to capture my interest. And I have to admit that I gave up on the ordeal 41 minutes into the ordeal, and I have zero intentions of returning to watch the rest of the movie. The storyline was too uneventful, mundane, devoid of anything interesting and just hands down boring. So writers Angela Cavallin, Lee Foster, Ryan Kobold and Bryan Piggott didn't manage to conjure up something great here.

The acting performances was a mixed bag of nuts. Some of the performances were wooden and rigid, while others were actually fair enough. Needless to say that I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list, and that was actually something that spoke in favor of the movie.

In the 41 minutes that I watched, there had been no creature on the screen, and that just also helped to cement this movie as a boring and unnecessary viewing experience.

The movie's cover oversold the movie a million times, making it appear as a far more interesting movie than what director Lee Foster delivered.

And as for what H. P. Lovecraft work "In Its Wake" was based upon, I have no idea.

If you are a horror fan or a fan of H. P. Lovecraft writings, then "In Its Wake" is a movie that is hardly worth the time, money or effort. I was sorely disappointed and not even remotely entertained by what it turned out to be.

My rating of "In Its Wake" lands on a three out of ten stars.