This Nicolas Cage 'monster horror' from last year has just now made it to various streaming services so I thought I'd give it a go. It's another post-apocalyptic world setting where nobody seems to know what happened, short of an opening sequence years before as our main man legs it out of the city and holds aloft his twin baby sons, Lion King style!
Skip ahead 15 years to the current and still nobody seems to know what happened to the world apart from there being no contact with the society outside of their valley (of 23 houses) and a bunch of creatures who roam outside during the hours of darkness. Much like in the series From (2022) everyone locks up and barricades themselves in their houses from dusk 'til dawn every day. The creatures bang and crash each night to try and get in, but (up to now) the vigilant inhabitants' measures have repelled their attempts.
Until one fateful day when headstrong son Thomas (who is chasing the teenage girl, Charlotte, at the next farm along, bending the rules that his brother, Joseph, sticks to - as defined by dad, Paul), falls into a crevice, whacks his head and is out, cold for a time. Joseph heads back to the house in time for darkness but loving dad heads out, dark or not, to rescue Thomas. This is the point at which we get a first viewing and interaction with the 'monsters' but unfortunately, in doing so, dad gets injured badly and Thomas and Joseph have to carry him back on their makeshift buggy.
Dad needs medicines to stop him dying, Charlotte's family have some, so Thomas heads over to talk them into sharing - but they won't. Or even help by giving them shelter. Everyone is clearly very frightened and focused on survival of their own folk. So it's back to their own house to board-up again. Charlotte, against the wishes of her family, however, secretly gives Thomas some tablets and this action, in one way or another leads to chaos at Charlotte's house with a major creature-attack. So all four of them head for Paul's house, where the creatures are burrowing underground by now to get in.
It's all good fun and actually, the creatures are very nicely imagined and created for the story with some very funny quirky behaviours just prior to launching their attack on humans! I'm sure it's not supposed to be funny, but as usual with this genre of film, it looks it to me! (In fact if they dispensed with it, they probably have a much better hit rate!) By the way, the creatures only seem to be interested in humans and not dogs, cows, sheep which these families seem to keep. Lucky animals, then!
The main players in the cast, Nic Cage (Face/Off, Leaving Las Vegas), Maxwell Jenkins (Lost in Space), Jaeden Martell (Knives Out) and Sadi Soverall (Saltburn, Little Bone Lodge) all do a good-enough job, though without a huge amount of character injected into their roles. In actual fact, Nic Cage's character isn't really in it that much as unconscious - so most of the focus is actually on the three teens, giving it something of a Disney feel at some points.
The most tedious part of the film without a doubt is the hugely widespread use of handheld camerawork. Makes you feel sick by the end of the 90 minutes. Perhaps that's the idea! It feels like a bit of an excuse to get a film out there to make some money with nobody really trying very hard, apart from the creature creations team - which are very much the stars of the show. When they are on screen it's rip-roaring fun!
