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Overlook Film Festival Review: THE LODGE
Home2019June5Overlook Film Festival Review: THE LODGE
June 5, 2019 Julieann Stipidis 1
I’ve never been too keen on having children, quite frankly, and thanks to Veronika Franz’s and Severin Fiala’s 2014 feature Goodnight Mommy and now their much-anticipated English-language follow up, THE LODGE, not only do I not want to have children of my own, but I sure as hell do not want to be a stepmom anytime soon either…
THE LODGE follows Grace, (a perfectly casted Riley Keough) a traumatized, former extreme Evangelist cult victim who is engaged to Richard, (Richard Armitage) the researcher of a book about said cult. Richard’s children Aiden (It’s Jaeden Martell) and Mia (Lia McHugh) blame Grace for ending the marriage between Richard and their heartbroken mother Laura, (Alicia Silverstone) and when it’s time for a blizzard-y Christmas vacation in the family’s deserted log cabin, Grace is forced to face the traumas of her past in an “Are we already dead and in purgatory?” type of hellish nightmare. (Yes, that question is actually asked.)
THE LODGE starts out promising. Within the first 15 minutes, the film jolts your attention with a loud bang and a whole lot of blood splattered on the walls. I’ll leave it at that (because I’m frankly disappointed in the amount of other reviews I read from its Sundance premiere that spoiled what exactly happens in this shocking moment.) The Overlook audience at my screening made all kinds of audible reactions. In addition to the well-crafted sound design throughout, Franz, Fiala, and cinematographer Thimios Bakatas waste no time establishing the film’s bleak tone through somber gray lighting, restraining shots of quiet, empty hallways and mysteriously closing doors, and even a macabre dollhouse that mirrors the characters’ “real” lives…which would have been wholly more effective if Hereditary and HBO thriller-drama Sharp Objects hadn’t already done it so well just one year ago. Whereas the dollhouses in those other two served as a thematic purpose to their respective narratives, the dolls and dollhouse in THE LODGE only exist to drum up the atmosphere and for little Mia to drag around when she’s missing certain family members.
The film feels as cold as its backdrop’s below-freezing temperatures, which I mean as a compliment in some ways, but in other ways— not as much. My biggest praise lies in its effectiveness: the filmmakers choose chilling subtlety over cheap jump scares. Several moments had me questioning whether or not I actually witnessed what I thought I witnessed in the dark corner. The visuals are often nightmare fuel, especially in what they choose not to show to you, because they understand that what you will envision in your head is much scarier than what they could create. They know how to craft horror that sinks under your skin and lingers long after viewing, which we already knew. I mean, who could forget that final shot of Goodnight Mommy? And the final moments of THE LODGE are just as unsettling, even if you see it coming from a mile away. However, the issues that are caused by the film’s coldness come from its script. Primarily empty dialogue, shallow characters (except for Keough’s Grace) and even stranger character decisions left me craving more. With the exception of Grace, detached, unlikeable characters make it difficult to get behind anyone except for her and the madness of what she is going through. Her fiancé Richard is thinly written, and the children garnered zero sympathy from me, even though they are kids— and maybe I should have felt something for them other than pure disdain? (Seriously, they were insufferable little jerks, in my opinion.)
Unfortunately, THE LODGE is often too logically inconsistent to be placed on the same tier as other slow-burn, contemporary favorites like Hereditary and The Witch. It seems to be suffering from an identity crisis: it wants to be Catholic guilt/religious horror, cult horror, supernatural horror, and haunted house horror, with knowing nods to The Shining, and while there is absolutely nothing wrong with mixing different subgenres and tropes into one film (hell, look how well it worked for Hereditary) the film sometimes feels too repetitive and unfocused, especially within the occurrences it expects you to buy into. A few moments during my screening I cringed in disbelief because I just wasn’t buying a few of the absurd logical issues that the film was trying to sell to me.
Even though I felt that this sophomore effort was not as strong and cohesive as the filmmakers’ debut, is THE LODGE still worth your time? Most definitely. It has its issues, but I guarantee it’ll make you feel icky afterwards with what it implies, and as horror fans, that’s all we need to get our butts in the seats.
THE LODGE will be distributed by NEON and is slated for a Fall 2019 release.
https://www.nightmarishconjurings.com/2019/06/05/overlook-film-festival-review-the-lodge/Zitat:
Mike’s Review: The Lodge (2019)
By msoup6 days ago ( 1 )
Directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala
2017 gave us Get Out. 2018 gave us Heriditary. 2019’s dive in to intellectual terror is the Lodge. Just as its forefathers were dark, brooding, thought-provoking, and terrifying, so is this year’s entry in to the new age of thinky-horror. Note: thinky-horror is not yet an industry-accepted term, but you heard it hear first.
The Lodge, a Hammer (yes, that Hammer) produced film, stars none-other-than Alicia Silverstone and the daughter of Lisa Marie Presley (yes, that Lisa Marie Presley), Riley Keough. Pulling no punches and have no concern for the audience’s emotional well-being, The Lodge starts off with a bang and never looks back. The film throws you smack-dab in to the middle of a family in crisis, faced with looming divorce, a new step mom, and deep-seated animosities. The animosities, mind you, aren’t held by a single family member, oh no, they’re held by Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister, and Step Mom. No one’s pleased with each other and The Lodge lets you know it.
Step mom Grace checking in on the kids.
The other slice of brilliance that The Lodge serves up is the premise and the setting of said premise. Trying desperately to keep some semblance of normality, the father Richard (Richard Armitage) decides to manufacture a faux bonding session with his kids Aiden (Jaeden Martell) and Mia (Lia McHugh) and their soon-to-be step mom Grace (Riley Presley). Before the family sets out for the family lodge, the filmmakers very deftly and subtly let the audience in on a dark secret — along with being Grace’s lover, Richard might just also be treating her for some psychological damage…and, and, and, that damage may be the result of the fact that Grace is the sole survivor of a whacked-out Christian suicide cult.
The group sets out in the dead of winter for the bucolic family cabin (AKA lodge) in the woods. However, almost immediately upon their arrival the father, Richard, announces that he’s got work to tend to back in the city and the kids and their new step get to hang and bond — one on one. The kids are having none of their father’s kind, but wrong-headed, offer. Grace is not a particularly strong motherly presence and kids are ultimately unreceptive to her kindness. Almost as soon as Richard is out the door, the flood of Christian suicide cult memories and visions begin to cloud Grace’s already fragile constitution. The kids not only choose not to help Grace through her ever-evolving crisis, they actually choose to be petty and particularly unwelcoming to their step mother to be.
As The Lodge slowly burns its way in to the third act, Grace’s psychosis becomes frighteningly heightened. Her visions become sharper and the memories of the Christian suicide cult begin to manifest themselves all over the family lodge. As a nasty storm sets in, the anxiety and tensions between Grace and the kids continue to mount and Richard is no where to be found. The clock continually resets itself to January 9. Newspaper obituaries about the kids and Grace begin to appear. Grace’s sleep becomes prolonged and coma-like. And then…the power and water goes out. Stuck waist-deep in snow with no water, no food, and a delicate set of relationships, Grace and the kids are now forced to come to terms with each other’s motives.
Eventually, directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala ethereally unpack Grace’s psychosis in possibly the darkest and most vile ways possible. Far more dark than Hereditary and far more disturbing than Get Out, the Lodge ends in an awful and detestable way. While terrifying and dark, the ending of The Lodge is a smart slice of filmmaking that was clearly not focus-grouped, that had singular purpose, and is a film that is ultimately powerful and glum. Make no mistake, the Lodge is a horror film that will stick with you for years to come. The imagery, the darkness, and the family decay might just have you second-guessing this year’s 4th of July picnic invite from Uncle Richard and Aunt Grace.
The Lodge isn’t rated, but we’re going with a hard R. The Lodge will be released in the U.S. on June 15.
https://scariesthings.com/2019/06/04/mikes-review-the-lodge-2019/Zitat:
By Matt Donato
Jun 3, 2019
Overlook Film Festival: ‘The Lodge’ Review – Three Reasons To See It
The Lodge is a methodically insidious and outstandingly tense entry into the “Christmas Horror” canon. Trust me. I’ve watched almost 120 Xmas slashers, spectral haunts, and holiday nightmares. Directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz follow their suffocatingly dreadful Goodnight Mommy with a tragic story of separation, loss, and vulnerable kids forced to cope with the unthinkable. Sadistic psychological horror accented by gunshot blasts and dollhouse crime scenes, increasing tension in prolonged still moments radiate nothing but ill-intent. Oh holy fright, these scares are brutally sinful…
Richard (Richard Armitage) is a father tasked with restoring his family’s stability after leaving ex-wife Laura (Alicia Silverstone). With Christmas Eve approaching, he suggests to son Aidan (Jaeden Lieberher) and daughter Mia (Lia McHugh) another celebratory stay in their secluded vacation lodge – with an added guest. To strengthen the relationship between kin and future second wife, Grace (Riley Keough) tags along. Richard’s work requires him to stay back until Christmas, leaving Aidan, Mia, and Grace to bond uninhibited despite Aidan’s vehement protest and Grace’s unsettling history of being the lone survivor of a satanic cult.
Neon snagged distribution rights for The Lodge out of Sundance and set release for this fall (no date yet). As we do around these parts, here are three frost-covered reasons to weather this relentless trauma-heavy blizzard.
1. Dread And Instability Of The Highest Order
Hell comes to Richard’s cozy wooden abode and kicks the door down while he’s blissfully unaware. Fiala and Franz’s approach to horror requires nothing more than human characters acting on their nastiest urges. Aidan and Mia blame Grace for their mother’s removal from parental pictures, making it clear they hold no compassion for their father’s new flame. From frame one, there’s zero mincing words. Aidan and Grace are not destined for friendship. Motivated by bottomless levels of grief, the kids are at their best as Grace slowly devolves into her worst.
As nights pass, mysteries pile higher than fresh roadside snowplow banks. Grace awakens in random locations (standing bedside Paranormal Activity style or laying down), memories of her father’s repetition of “Repent!” ringing in her ears; a regression to the child discovered at the scene of a mass cult suicide. Aidan and Mia hear their increasingly disturbed future stepmother stirring about during midnight hours, pointing blame when personal objects go missing with no signs of a break-in. In this vein, The Lodge continuously pushes characters to dangerous brinks with rabid intensity. A hangman’s noose, a loaded revolver, a saint’s painting – weapons of the unhinged that assure only the highest order of teeth-clenched dread as you realize just how sinister a film you’re watching.
2. Riley Keough’s Climb Inside The Mouth Of Madness
As fans voice their desires for horror to be more widely recognized by awards ceremonies, Riley Keough’s performance in The Lodge is another “Give Toni Collette an Oscar for Hereditary, you cowards” situation. Undoubtedly one of the year’s best horror performances. Grace’s childhood marred by death, emotional abuse and father’s Bible-fanatic preaching creates constant character mistrust, just as Richard’s children reflect upon researching Grace’s family history online. Keough plays a woman attempting to move forward years later, still haunted by corpses with “Sin” scribbled on duct tape placed across closed mouths. Her genuine desire to rebuild is lit ablaze by Fiala and Franz’s proclivity to torment their already traumatized character, even as you see the cracks were only just papered over, never gone. That’s when the fun begins.
Keough’s transformation from attempted niceties with the kids to unpredictable sleepwalker to a victim of powers outside her control punishes hopefulness. Her forehead scrunched and frustrations visible when staring at decorative religious effects that trigger internal playbacks of her father’s hellfire and damnation give way to dead, blank eyes gazing outward into nothingness as less and less about her world makes sense. Frayed ends of sanity cannot be gripped, as Keough jettisons herself from reality into a broken land where despair leaves only one foreseeable option of escape. Understated, subtle, searing instability that’s played red-hot enough by Keough to melt Antarctica dry. Excuse my vagueness, but to reveal any more would spoil the how and why of Grace’s rapid descent into gaslit madness.
3. What’s A Sophomore Slump?
Fiala and Franz prove themselves to be anything but one-trick ponies after creeping under our skin with Goodnight Mommy. Once again the filmmakers utilize maternal relationships with adversarial children, pitting adults versus pipsqueaks in a battle of unwavering wits – or in this case, unwavering trauma. The weight of the thematic emotional core is densely complex, clarified and framed by the frozen simplicity and minimalist isolation of the setting. Richard’s cabin sits entirely removed from civilization, a purgatory where sins are relived, committed and exposed all at once. Like the water itself, audiences are trapped under the thick ice for an inevitable plunge into icy dread.
The Lodge is confident, take-no-prisoners horror that aims for the gut and watches you writhe and squirm in agony. So stylistic when panning through foreshadowing dollhouse rooms, or how Keough’s Grace loses human touches over time (the jerky movements of a marionette, for example). It’s Christmas horror that doesn’t need monsters or slashers given how man’s basest instincts are horrifying enough. Fiala and Franz heartlessly abuse their characters, gleefully punish their audiences, and treat horror cinema as the unforgivably mortifying genre it’s meant to be. Can masochism be an art form? It’s the only reality given how impressed I was by a film intent on making me feel as destroyed as possible.
https://www.atomtickets.com/movie-news/the-lodge-review-overlook-film-festival/Zitat:
[Overlook 2019 Review] THE LODGE is a Deeply Effective Film that Explores the Terrifying Consequences of Trauma
Posted by Kimberley Elizabeth | Jun 4, 2019 | Reviews |
[Overlook 2019 Review] THE LODGE is a Deeply Effective Film that Explores the Terrifying Consequences of TraumaScore 82%Score 82%
Anyone who has seen Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (read: everyone) knows there is nothing more terrifying than snow when combined with isolation. The pair make for a foreboding cocktail, one that will ultimately weigh on the sanity and decision-making of anyone caught in its path. Co-written and directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz (Goodnight Mommy), from a screenplay by Sergio Casci (The Caller), The Lodge quietly descends into that cold, blustery darkness; a barrelling steam train of harrowing destruction. Audiences can only grip tightly to their seats and brace for the inevitable. We are stuck aboard with trauma, sorrow, guilt – and pure, raw terror.
“[T]rauma, sorrow, guilt – and pure, raw terror.”
The Lodge opens on mother Laura (Alicia Silverstone) and her two children Mia (Lia McHugh, Along Came the Devil) and Aiden (Jaeden Lieberher, It and It: Chapter Two), Laura rushedly rounding up her children to be dropped off at their father Richard’s (Richard Armitage) house. The pair go reluctantly, bemoaning “is she going to be there?” when they pull up to the front drive. She is dad’s new girlfriend – Grace (Riley Keough, Hold the Dark, Under the Silver Lake), who we initially don’t meet. She instead haunts the outskirts of the early scenes like a ghost, her shadow appearing in the front window like an eclipse over this broken family. When Richard asks Laura to finalize their divorce so that he can marry Grace in the Spring, we get our first glimpse just how deep The Lodge’s basement. While her children are still spending time with their father, calm and quiet as a dentist’s office, Laura slides the barrel of a revolver into her mouth, pulls the trigger, and lets her pain splatter all over the dining room wall.
Aiden and Mia tearfully grieve their mother’s loss, and it’s heartbreaking and nearly unbearable to watch. Now in the primary care of their father, Richard is at first respectful not to bring Grace around while the pain of their mother’s death is still raw. But by the time Thanksgiving arrives, Richard is ready to begin repairing and re-building his family, ignoring Aiden and Mia’s protests. They plan a Christmas holiday at the family lodge, and it seems like a great idea for the family to spend some time away. Until it isn’t.
Riley Keough has exploded onto the genre scene over the past two years, first landing on my radar after appearing as Kim in It Comes At Night. She possesses a natural talent of playing guarded, alluring, and mysterious characters; ones that emote with dry eyes and pursed lips. These characters tango through nearly every mumblegore film of the creeping A24 indie takeover, so it’s no surprise Keough’s star has been rising along with them. Grace is another perfect specimen to add to her glass jars shelved on IMDB. The lone survivor of a religious cult, Grace was found among the bodies of her family and religious community as a child. A traumatized sheep in a flock of suicides.
As the audience, we are guarded around Grace, unsure how deeply her trauma bubbles. She hugs an adorable dog Grady tightly wherever she goes, drapes herself in cozy blankets and shawls, and secretly hides prescription medication in her bedroom end table – so we hope she’s gotten the help and has the appropriate self-care/support to be a mother figure, or even to just simply befriend Richard’s children.
But Aiden and Mia aren’t about to let Mom #2 into their lives so easy. After Richard heads back into the city for work, the reluctant trio are left alone in the isolated lodge. Winter rages on, and the kiddos ignore supper calls, knocks on doors, and tv time. Grace is running out of ideas to warm them over.
“We have no idea just what we’re so utterly afraid of, but The Lodge will stew us in dread anyway with its intentionally vague plotting and a screenplay paced to withhold.”
The Lodge is a tense story steeped in dread. We have no idea just what we’re so utterly afraid of, but The Lodge will stew us in dread anyway with its intentionally vague plotting and a screenplay paced to withhold. The eerieness is very much akin to Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others (2001). Terrible things have already happened. We’re sure terrible things are to come. We can’t do anything about it. We can’t see a way out of The Lodge.
I’m remaining vague, as The Lodge is best served in a dark theater with few expectations or clues on what to anticipate. The film does lull a bit in the middle after audiences tie knots and connect events, but the final act will take you on a harrowing journey whether or not you know the direction the film is headed. And don’t be surprised if the knots you tie unravel at your feet.
Hammer Films’ The Lodge screened at the 2019 Overlook Film Festival. Stay tuned to Nightmare on Film Street for more coverage and highlights from the festival, and let us know which films you’re excited to check out over on Twitter, Reddit, and the Horror Movie Fiend Club on Facebook!
https://nofspodcast.com/overlook-2019-review-the-lodge-is-a-deeply-effective-film-that-explores-the-terrifying-consequences-of-trauma/Zitat:
Overlook Film Festival ’19 Recap: Ghosts, Movies, and “Paperbacks from Hell”
Published 1 week ago
on June 3, 2019
By Meagan Navarro
[...]
The Lodge
The closing night film of the fest, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s second feature packed the theater to capacity in short order thanks to the buzz from Sundance. Our own Meredith said the film “is crafted for utmost discomfort, making for a relentless onslaught of unease,” in her review. It’s true. Fiala and Franz present an oppressive, bleak story from the outset and only coils the dread tighter as it continues. There are no twists here; the directors lay out exactly what’s going to happen ahead of time, making the journey that much more uncomfortable and haunting. The Lodge is a vicious, mean spirited film that’s sure to leave a mark. It’s hardly the scariest film ever made, but it is one that’s so heavy and bleak that it’ll linger in your mind long after. And Riley Keough is a revelation. Luckily NEON will be releasing this one in the fall.
https://bloody-disgusting.com/reviews/3564763/overlook-film-festival-2019-recap-ghosts-movies-paperbacks-hell/