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Written by: Leigh Whannell & Corbett Tuck
Directed by: Leigh Whannell
Starring: Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, Matilda Firth
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer
Plot
A family at a remote farmhouse is attacked by an unseen animal, but as the night stretches on, the father begins to transform into something unrecognizable.
Verdict
I hoped for more. After The Invisible Man, I expected this to meld horror and metaphor while providing insight. I like the story structure, taking place over one night, but that also prevents this story from developing a foundation. I kept trying to make a connection and figure out the underlying meaning of what the story represents. There are several ways this could have been done better. This misses the mark for horror and metaphor. It's meandering, failing to live up to its predecessor.
Skip it.
Review
This is from Leigh Whannel who wrote Saw, Insidious, Upgrade, and The Invisible Man.
Opening with an ominous father and son hunting trip, dad thinks there is some kind of beast in the woods. With the title of the movie, it's easy to guess what that might be.
We get a time jump. Blake (Christopher Abbott) is grown up, married to Charlottes (Julia Garner) with his own child. We're left wondering what happened to his dad and the beast in the woods. His father was okay when Blake left home years ago, but it seems something may have happened in the intervening time. Blake has to settle his fathers estate, and this wastes no time getting into it. I don't know why he takes his whole family. It might be to show them where he grew up. In that area, you don't go out in the woods at night. Of course a mishap means Blake and family are alone in the woods at night.
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| Julia Garner, Matilda Firth, Christopher Abbott play Charlotte, Ginger, Blake |
I appreciate this defied my expectations of a family vacationing in a cabin as the father slowly develops strange habits. This movie takes place over just one night. We expect Blake to turn, but the question is what will happen at that point.
After The Invisible Man, I was expecting this to provide more commentary. What does this werewolf story mean? What's the metaphor? Half way in it feels like a wasted effort. The only insight is seeing your parent as some kind of monster. For Blake, his father was a figurative monster that caused fear. Now with his daughter, he's literally becoming a monster. And that's me doing the work for this movie. Even then I'd like more out of this.
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| Matilda Firth, Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner play Ginger, Blake, Charlotte |
This could make the werewolf tale trauma passed down and the harm you cause your kids. Blake's father certainly had an effect on him. The disconnect is that Blake strives to be a good father. The cause for Blake's loss of control is not the same as his father. They both become monsters, but that's all and it's weak. This could be a son dealing with the trauma his father caused and how he repeats the same example, but if that's it his family complicates that. There's just a disconnect between Blake being a good father and becoming a monster. This could delve into fighting your nature or how trauma is passed down, but with such a short timeline it doesn't have the length to develop it.
This easily could have made Charlotte the focus. She's in a deteriorating marriage with a monster of a husband that's slowly becoming worse and a child caught in the middle and not understanding. It could mirror Blake's descent with his father's. The movie didn't do that. I wanted this to have more meaning and significance.
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