The Lodge
Two children take a trip with their father and new stepmother, shortly after the tragic death of their mother. When the kids are left alone with their new stepmom in an isolated cabin, they attempt to drive her crazy. Unfortunately, their attempt drives her to a point much worse than they had imagined.
I kept hearing about The Lodge (2019) for some time before I finally got around to watching it. I had perused through my streaming services, unsure of what to watch when I saw it on Hulu. I saw the cast had the kid from IT and Knives Out (Jaeden Martell) in it, as well as Alicia Silverstone. So I figured why not.
The setup is a fairly common trope for those familiar with the horror genre. A father, wishing for his kids to get along with his soon to be wife, plans a trip for everybody to get to know each other. The kids, having just lost their mother (very recently, dad, tsk tsk), aren’t too keen on the idea of spending time with her. The kids do a little digging into her past and find out she had a very intense upbringing as a member of a cult- and the kids soon hatch a plan. The father leaves the kids and the woman alone- and the kids put their devious plan into play.
The movie wasn’t exactly original in it’s plot- like I had mentioned, you have probably seen something similar at some point. But what was different was how far the children were willing to take their plans. No spoilers here, but I think its safe to say that these kids are terrible.
Like super fucken terrible kids.
But the use of the kids added a lot to the film’s build up. The movie also did well in the events being pretty believable, which is usually a thing for me. I’m all for the suspension of disbelief when it comes to a good movie, but you lose me as a viewer when a character is toooooo stupid, you know? The movie does a great job of using religion and religious icons to build suspense. The stepmother, having that intense childhood, quickly falls back to her cult-like behavior as the movie progresses- something that is amplified by all the religious paintings throughout the house.
What I wasn’t a fan of was the limit of characters. The movie has about 4 characters, with most of the time really being spent on three. I’m sure this was done on purpose to build the claustrophobic intimacy of the film and sow seeds of doubt in us as viewers. But it would have been great to see some new faces, especially ones I could actually like on some level. I also think the movie could have been improved with a little more background on the stepmom. Viewers learn of her cult background and see the effects of it on her psyche, but I think expanding on that upbringing would have been fun to see. But Overall, I was pretty disappointed in the movie. It was lackluster and, though the ending wasn’t terrible, I finished the film feeling meh af. It was like winning first place in an ugly competition. You won, you know… but like at what cost.
Rating: I give the movie 4 shitty kids out of 10 because the premise being so played out (IMO) and the slowness of the climax.
If you are looking for a similar movie to get into, check out Midsommar- huge fan of this movie. There are a lot of similarities. A girl loses her parents to her suicidal sister, leaving her shitty boyfriend to be her only source of comfort. Her boyfriend (seriously can’t stress this enough, shitty) grudgingly takes her with his friends to go to a festival in a remote part of Scandinavia, and the festival is not all that it seems to be. Another cult-horror movie you might want to check out is Hereditary, directed by Ari Aster (same director of Midsommar). A family attempts to deal with death, only to be followed by more death. A family dealing with the death of their matriarch is left with questions about what kind of sorcery she might have been involved with- thing the family should have left alone.
If you need a book to get into, I would suggest anything Stephen King. If you want something more specific, check out Night Shift (1977), which contains several of King’s short stories, including ‘Children of the Corn.’ A couple stops by a small town and quickly see things aren’t right- a dead give away with the corn-shrine and dead bodies. Also be sure to check out Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi if you need to read up on cults. The true story telling of the Manson Family murders, it includes first-hand accounts from some of those near the events. It’s informative, interesting, and hard to put down.
As always, let me know what you thought about The Lodge- loved it, hated it, whatever.
GET AT ME!
Until next time…
-M