I was surprised to see a movie with a reported budget of less than almost any condo in a major city appear on Netflix. Interesting, the cast lists Doug Jones and Lance Henriksen as lead actors (more on this later). The film, although is obviously low budget ( I think they even make a self deprecating joke early in the film about this), after the first 10 minutes of the film, the film overcomes this challenge to be a good if predictable indie horror.
The plot is a team of developers is checking out a property for potential purchase when they come across an old WWII bunker. Of course they must go into the bunker where horror happens. What happens next is predictable, but well done. This is not a gore fest so much as the horror of the inevitable slowly dawning on the characters.
The acting is putrid. As a fan of Lance Henriksen going back to Aliens, I am always curious about his films. I suspect he simple sent a short video of himself talking to his phone company just so they can use his name in the credits. To say his role is even a cameo is laughable. Doug Jones who regularly plays strange aliens or creatures, is in this film - I guess, but who knows. The remaining actors are bad, and the director's attempts to try to build in character later in the film feels even more flimsy.
There are numerous plot holes as well, although they don't detract from the film in any meaningful way. There are also some continuity issues which are not unexpected - again, these issues do not take away from the film in any meaningful way.
Overall, I find it hard to give a rating to films like this because they suffer obvious drawbacks that prevent them from being a 'good' film. I instead have to rank them based on other films of their kind - low end horror films. This one is better than most of those, although it has areas of obvious silliness and the acting is either very poor, or attempting to be funny without really being that funny. I appreciated the tone, and the film was able to be both dark and the right touch of humorous at the same time.
Overall, I enjoyed the film, which is more than I can say for most Insidious sequels. Keep your expectations low and enjoy... 7/10.
The plot is a team of developers is checking out a property for potential purchase when they come across an old WWII bunker. Of course they must go into the bunker where horror happens. What happens next is predictable, but well done. This is not a gore fest so much as the horror of the inevitable slowly dawning on the characters.
The acting is putrid. As a fan of Lance Henriksen going back to Aliens, I am always curious about his films. I suspect he simple sent a short video of himself talking to his phone company just so they can use his name in the credits. To say his role is even a cameo is laughable. Doug Jones who regularly plays strange aliens or creatures, is in this film - I guess, but who knows. The remaining actors are bad, and the director's attempts to try to build in character later in the film feels even more flimsy.
There are numerous plot holes as well, although they don't detract from the film in any meaningful way. There are also some continuity issues which are not unexpected - again, these issues do not take away from the film in any meaningful way.
Overall, I find it hard to give a rating to films like this because they suffer obvious drawbacks that prevent them from being a 'good' film. I instead have to rank them based on other films of their kind - low end horror films. This one is better than most of those, although it has areas of obvious silliness and the acting is either very poor, or attempting to be funny without really being that funny. I appreciated the tone, and the film was able to be both dark and the right touch of humorous at the same time.
Overall, I enjoyed the film, which is more than I can say for most Insidious sequels. Keep your expectations low and enjoy... 7/10.