User reviews

Stuck at home under house arrest, a woman trying to get over a deadly accident with her friend finds her fragile mental state already unraveling from a recent abortion under further stress from nightmarish hallucinations and must figure out the cause to stop them from continuing.

On the whole, this was an immensely solid genre effort. One of the best aspects of this one is the incredibly effective and immersive world-building that goes on to provide the film with a fantastic starting point. The whole idea of the conservative mindset at play here where the mere act of these features can result in incarceration and house arrest, setting everything up with an oppressive mindset even more damaging than the nature of her parole visitations or the jabs from neighbors about what's going on. It creates an immensely effective and sympathetic portrayal with rightful indignation at everything going on around her yet no opportunity to do anything about it based on the world around her that continues to keep piling hardships on her with the revelations about her husband and her feelings for the friend staying with her. That setup provides a great base for the terrifying supernatural encounters that are present throughout here. With the first instances coming across as a potential outcome of a drunken binge or just exhaustion from being in the situation, the enhanced nature of the confrontations here ramps up considerably as the physical manifestations of everything take a different life the later this goes on. Scenes like the vase off the mantle flying and hitting a friend in the head with little prompting otherwise, the sighting with the ghostly figure in the kitchen, or a series of psychedelic-infused hallucinations about different supernatural entities in her life are quite enjoyable and manage to bring about the kind of chilling confrontations that are quite effective. This sense of striking visualization and creepy concepts are also utilized effectively in the finale which manages to pull off some impressive features that make this quite fun, giving the film a lot to like about it. There are a few slight drawbacks present that are featured here. The main detriment to this one is the high quality but quite low quantity count of the supernatural which keeps the film on the sluggish side. The first half spends quite a long period focusing on her incarceration and struggles to keep herself intact over the constant hardships being faced against her with the different factors being built up to throw curveballs at her. Yet, these are done at the expense of the ghostly interactions. They come off more as a final straw that is added on top of the other factors she faces than anything else and the drama between her and her friend is the main focus until we get to the final half as she manages to come to terms with these factors. The only other factor here is the seemingly bizarre and random nature of the motivation for everything that comes about in the ending to make everything make sense and it just feels random and chaotic without spelling anything out. Overall, these few factors are what hold this down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.

A more contemporary answer to What Lies Beneath with the added layer of social commentary, grief, and a warning to "beware the nice ones." Fayna Sanchez is a star from start to finish. This one is stressful because the audience knows something is off from the jump and put the pieces together far before Sanchez's Mia has. It's a film where the sheer anticipation of how it may spiral out of control and play out keeps you on edge. Knowing the what and who and not the exact how paired with the uncertainty the story casts on the plot along the way shows that Izzy Lee knows human nature and how to create tension. Fantastic chamber piece horror.