Director, co-writer and even cast member, Adam Gierasch brings us the tale of Emily Weaver, a city girl who, after her miscarriage is whisked by her husband to his family home in rural Iowa.
The country idyll and her own recovery begin to pale as she discovers the grizzly past of former occupants whose malevolent spirits haunt the house. Discovering that she is pregnant again, she realises that she may face the same fate as previous expectant mothers who were killed by their partners...
...at least, that's what we are led to believe. The truth turns out to be much more prosaic and is, unfortunately, one of a number of downfalls which help to make this attempt so disappointing. Seen through the eyes of our heroine, she sees her artist husband's agent Risa attempting a romantic intrigue with him, her best friend Brittany conspiring with him and the man himself falling into madness whilst plotting her demise.
We are of course given enough clues - depression, stopping medication, hints of paranoia - to work out the truth and to guess the ending which takes an overlong time to appear on the horizon.
Whilst there are a few scary and gory moments, there is not enough here even to pad out an hour and a half which means it feels like two hours or more until we reach a quite expected denouement. Stephan Sechi's soundtrack does little to enhance particularly as it is frequently played at a level which drowns out dialogue - although this could be claimed to improve things slightly as the characters seem to have to carefully explain everything to each other in case we miss anything. Shot on location, the starkness of the Iowan landscape, although hinted at, is largely wasted.
Leisha Hailey does fairly well as Emily Weaver despite - or perhaps because of - depending on one's point of view - the almost obsessive images of her cleavage and breasts. Less convincing in their roles are Gale Harold as her husband Nate, Stephanie Brown as Risa and JoNell Kennedy as Brittany.
Whilst IMDb does not give a budget for this film, this would seem to be the biggest stumbling block. The camera work, location shooting and general air of cleverness seem to indicate an attempt to produce a serious horror movie. Perhaps the makers would have been better off with a smaller budget and a chance to ham it up a little...
One footnote: The chapter headings were both pointless and annoying.
The country idyll and her own recovery begin to pale as she discovers the grizzly past of former occupants whose malevolent spirits haunt the house. Discovering that she is pregnant again, she realises that she may face the same fate as previous expectant mothers who were killed by their partners...
...at least, that's what we are led to believe. The truth turns out to be much more prosaic and is, unfortunately, one of a number of downfalls which help to make this attempt so disappointing. Seen through the eyes of our heroine, she sees her artist husband's agent Risa attempting a romantic intrigue with him, her best friend Brittany conspiring with him and the man himself falling into madness whilst plotting her demise.
We are of course given enough clues - depression, stopping medication, hints of paranoia - to work out the truth and to guess the ending which takes an overlong time to appear on the horizon.
Whilst there are a few scary and gory moments, there is not enough here even to pad out an hour and a half which means it feels like two hours or more until we reach a quite expected denouement. Stephan Sechi's soundtrack does little to enhance particularly as it is frequently played at a level which drowns out dialogue - although this could be claimed to improve things slightly as the characters seem to have to carefully explain everything to each other in case we miss anything. Shot on location, the starkness of the Iowan landscape, although hinted at, is largely wasted.
Leisha Hailey does fairly well as Emily Weaver despite - or perhaps because of - depending on one's point of view - the almost obsessive images of her cleavage and breasts. Less convincing in their roles are Gale Harold as her husband Nate, Stephanie Brown as Risa and JoNell Kennedy as Brittany.
Whilst IMDb does not give a budget for this film, this would seem to be the biggest stumbling block. The camera work, location shooting and general air of cleverness seem to indicate an attempt to produce a serious horror movie. Perhaps the makers would have been better off with a smaller budget and a chance to ham it up a little...
One footnote: The chapter headings were both pointless and annoying.