It's quite good. It entertains. It has a few fun moments. It has a few comical moments as well. The big reveal is worth the wait though. It spends time developing a bunch of characters centred around two people arriving at an Airbnb on the same night and realising that they've been double booked. It's raining and dark outside. They decide to be civilised and both use it, at least for that night. They get to know each other over wine. Turns out he's someone half famous and she's getting a job with someone he knows. They turn in. One spooky incident occurs during the night, but it's over.
We move to the next day - she goes to her job interview and he goes out. When she gets back, he's not there and she gets herself trapped in the basement looking for toilet rolls. She finds a door in the basement with a secret passage, which leads to a network of tunnels - and there's something down there! Of course there is!
Some spooky stuff starts going on, which I won't spoil for you but this is where the film kind of splits into three parts as we travel back in time for the second section to the 1980's and follow a character who's actions back then relate to what's happening now. So a flashback, I guess. But it's a lengthy one which establishes part of the plot - he's a previous owner/tenant of the house. We get some hints as to what he was up to back then, for future reference.
Then we get the backstory (in the present) of the young, annoying, wealthy actor who actually owns the house, how his world is crumbling around him and how he's running out of money. All this leads him to visit his house to measure-up so he can sell it. As well as introducing him to the plot (present). Hope you're keeping up! The third part returns to the present and leads us into the action, the violence, some intrigue, some scary bits (but not jump-scares) and, sadly, some inconsistencies in terms of people's actions and behaviour (given the situation).
Justin Long plays the main male lead very nicely - the (until now) rich actor. He has a track record of quirky little horror films like this - Tusk (2014) comes to mind - and he's carved out a channel for himself. The audience is encouraged to hate his character here though, via his cowardice and self-centred behaviours. This develops a theme throughout the film which seems to be about men being in charge and women being considered secondary, with various examples, not only from him, but also a couple of policemen who don't take our female lead seriously and other instances.
Like Tusk, this has a ludicrous central idea which you might not see coming too soon, but the third part certainly pulls it together and the boxes get ticked. Georgina Campbell (Broadchurch) plays the female lead well enough, but there are no Oscars to be won, methinks, by anyone!
The most scary horror movie to be released in years, it is not. There are far, far better horror films. It's interesting and it's fun. It would do very nicely sitting on Hulu or Shudder and attracting people to it like Dashcam (2021) has for example (which, incidentally, was a great deal more scary than this). No, not nearly as scary as people are making out, but it does have attributes which make it worth seeing. Currently on various streaming services in the UK. Thanks to Gareth Myles for his verbal review on our podcast Projector Room, which I nicked from!
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