Naty's Spooky Corner

1 BR

★★★★★

Sunday, April 18, 2021, 11:11 PM

This 2019 film is the directorial debut of David Marmor centered on the unfortunate series of events that occur after a struggling costume designer moves into a one-bedroom apartment after having left a toxic home. Unfortunately, the designer, Sarah, quickly comes to realize that the perfect and thriving community within her new apartment complex is not exactly as it seems. And that she will have to do more than just throw a couple of house warming parties to be fully accepted by her sadistic neighbors.

Spoiler Alert:

Alright, before any viewer allows this scene - and you know which one I’m talking about -  to influence their opinion of the movie, I wanted to offer a quick warning to anyone who is not comfortable watching an untimely death of a pet. Personally, and unsurprisingly, I found this part of the film to be a wild and unnecessary left turn. Yes, I understand that it was an element within the story meant to show how insane the neighborhood cult is and how intense the following scenes were about to become, but being an avid cat-lover and self-proclaimed crazy cat lady myself, that was not something that I particularly wanted to witness.

Anywho, let’s get back into the review.

To all my viewers that eagerly expected a more supernatural horror movie to unfold on the screen, much like I did myself, please prepare for the exact opposite to ensue - this isn’t your garden variety “Rosemary’s Baby”. After Sarah experiences the traumatic event of waking up to her freaking cat being cooked alive in the oven, she quickly begins to realize just how far her neighbors are willing to go to make sure that she “fits in” with their twisted community. Sarah is quickly whisked away to an undisclosed location, where two of her neighbors finally give her their version of a neighborly welcome, and torture her to the point where she is too traumatized to be anything other than compliant with their sick beliefs. Any viewer might conflate this submission to a typical cult brainwashing session, but the truth is more tragic than that. Sarah is so traumatized and lost in her fear of pain that makes the soul-breaking decision to remain a part of this community or else die.

Let’s talk about the third act. .After being fully initiated into the cult, we see Sarah slowly become part of the selection and isolation process of others with little to no resistance, that is of course until her previous coworker, Lisa starts eyeing an apartment within the complex. Sarah continues to participate in her initiation, until she is confronted with the attempt to break her incredibly headstrong friend. It’s not until Sarah is once again reminded that it’s “her fucking life” that she remembers how completely messed up it is for her to continue being part of the so called “community”. This awakening results in Sarah, and only Sarah escaping, after Lisa and other members of the community are brutally shot. Out of all the violence in this film, Lisa’s death was by far the most unjust. I would have much rather liked to have seen her character unleash her revenge throughout the complex instead of simply serving as a device for Sarah to eventually escape.

The ending scene shows Sarah finally escaping from the abusive cult, only to find that there were several other properties within the area that were being owned and run by C.D.E, the cult-based property group. While terrifying to think about the existence of other violent, brainwashing communities the message fell a bit flat. Plot twists of this nature have previously been seen in more-fleshed out films, such as “The Invitation”, leaving little ingenuity to be credited to the film.

Spooky Rating: 2/5

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