Children in movies are allowed to be stupid and do equally stupid things that contravene their continued safety. Because they are kids. You can even forgive teenagers for driving into the middle of nowhere to stay in a log cabin surrounded by potential serial killers for the weekend for promised debauchery, because they’re still kids. Big, stupid ones, but really, still kids. Parents have no such excuse. This flagrant behaviour by the grown ups featured here will make every parent wince, if not froth with incandescent ire. Due to a blatant disregard for responsibility, it should really come as no surprise that the kids in this story are likely to have gone awry.
It’s a very simple story, the acting from the grown-ups isn’t too shabby , but if anything, the kids let this project down with a lack of acting chops or perhaps directed to be less menacing than events would really suggest.
It fairly whizzes by at ninety minutes, is well paced and is mostly engaging throughout, but becomes noticeably more of a trial when the kids are on screen. The soundtrack is intrusive and inappropriate for the tone and whilst its quite obvious it is inspired by the likes of Stranger Things, even down to the fonts for the credits, it has some way to go to recreate that drama.
Overall, this is largely forgettable fodder that only really approaches horror per se in the final act, which is a surprise given Blumhouse being responsible for it and Jason Blum producing.
Cinebuffs 