This week’s film reviews
See what Republic film critics think of “Ordinary Love,” “The Call of the Wild” and “The Lodge.”
“The Lodge” is an exceptionally creepy horror film — and a really disturbing one.
Maybe that shouldn’t be a surprise, given that it is directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz. Did you see “Goodnight Mommy?” If so, the mere mention of the title probably elicits shudders. They’re really good at making you feel really bad, or at least really uncomfortable.
If anything, they’ve upped the ante with “The Lodge,” a psychologically
(and sometimes physically) brutal film about grief, faith, escaping your past —
you know, the usual horror fare. Only it’s really well-rendered in Fiala and Franz’s hands. Plus the cast is terrific, in particular Riley Keough in a tricky role as Grace, a woman about to marry a man with two children. Aidan (Jaden Martell) and Mia (Lia McHugh) want nothing to do with her. They prefer their mom, Laura (Alicia Silverstone), who is struggling with impending divorce from their father, Richard (Richard Armitage).
Part of this is the expected trauma of a cratering marriage. Part of it is Grace’s troubled past. (“You left mom for a psychopath” is probably not something Richard enjoys hearing.)
Months after a tragedy, Richard decides it would be a great idea for the kids to spend the Christmas holidays with Grace, who they truly can’t stand. The idea is Richard will drive them to the family’s remote cabin in the middle of snowy nowhere, isolated, for a little bonding. There’s some hemming and hawing and complaining, but they wind up making the trip. Soon, however, Richard is called back to the city for work.
So now we’ve got three people who don’t want to be there, and definitely don’t want to be with each other, stuck in a cabin with a dangerous blizzard raging outside.
What could possibly go wrong? More than you might think, though probably not you would think.
At first, the kids’ interactions with Grace could give the weather outside a run for its money in terms of frostiness. But gradually they come around, bit by bit. Then strange things begin happening. The power goes out. The generator won’t work. The decorations disappear. So does the food.
Why? Well, there’s your movie. The stress was already at a breaking point. Where can it go from there? Beyond.
There are touches of “The Shining” here that will make themselves obvious, and “Hereditary” even more so. But there are also traces of “Sinister,” a genuinely disturbing movie (not that the other two aren’t) that reveal themselves in subtler ways — ways that, like the rest of the details, you’ll have to discover for yourself. Fiala and Franz don’t overdo the nods. They simply make them work in service of their own film.
Martell, who played Bill in the “It” movies, gives a layered performance as a boy channeling his grief and anger in surprising ways. McHugh is particularly affecting as a young girl in pain; you really believe her struggles and anguish.
But it all falls ultimately to Keough, who is outstanding at portraying the duality of a character, a duality the story demands. As with their previous films, Fiala and Franz toy with the truth, and keep you guessing as to what’s real and what is isn’t. Keough plays this masterfully. You will question reality throughout, particularly in the last act. The answers “The Lodge” provides will remain with you long afterwards.