- Directed by Travis Stevens
- Written by Nathan Faudree, Travis Stevens
- Stars Sarah Lind, Josh Ruben, Malin Barr
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddx78lV-fps
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was one that gives you some early warning of what’s going to happen. But then other things happen too, and things go off the rails when madness meets magic and the lines blur. It’s very interesting and well made.
Synopsis
An auctioneer tells about old gods who were summoned for revenge for crimes against the innocent. It’s an auction for statues of these deities. No one knows who made the sculpture, but it’s very old. The bidding is competitive, almost entirely done by stand-ins talking to their rich buyers on their phones. And the win eventually goes to Kate Horna. She takes the little statues home, planning to deliver them to her buyer in the morning.
The doorbell rings. It’s Bruce, the main guy who was bidding against her on the sculptures. He said his buyer decided they really want the artwork, and he offers her double what she paid, plus a personal bonus. She invites him in while she calls her buyer for permission to take the deal. We see that his hands are shaking, and suddenly, the bathroom light turns red. Bruce sees that there’s some kind of monster in there, and then he kills Kate.
We cut to a therapy session. Meredith talks about calling the cops on her ex. Later, she goes to the art museum with two friends. She tells them that she has a date tonight, which, according to her friends’ reactions, seems to be a rare thing.
It’s time for her date, and we see that it’s Bruce. They talk about art and relationships on their drive. They’re going away to his place in the county for the weekend. She wants to stop for snacks and a pee, but he asks her to be patient; they’re almost there.
They eventually arrive at his isolated house in the woods. As she grabs her suitcase, she hears someone say, “Leave!” There’s no one around, which she thinks is weird. She spots the sculpture on his living room table and is impressed. But he tells her it’s a reproduction. She recognizes it from when it came through her museum for authentication and texts her friend from the museum about it.
As Bruce makes dinner, Meredith starts seeing strange things. Is she hallucinating? She seems to think so. Meanwhile, Bruce’s hands start shaking, and he quietly complains, “Not yet.” We see that there is someone outside. She sees it, and Bruce doesn’t really argue with her about it.
She wants to leave, but he’s not cooperative. She packs up her stuff and threatens to call for a ride-share. Meredith’s museum-friend calls back and tells her, “Get the hell out of there.” The statue was stolen, and the woman who had it disappeared.” Meanwhile, Bruce sees the big, red owl-monster again. “OK, it’s time,” he says.
Bruce grabs Meredith from behind and kills her with his claw-knife-weapon as the owl monster watches.
He burns her clothes and then masturbates in the kitchen. When he goes back to dispose of the body, she wakes up and smacks him over the head.
Bruce wakes up and kisses Meredith. He tells her about his weird dreams. Leonora is there too, a woman he killed long ago. He wakes up, for real this time, with blood on his head. That previous bit was his imagination.
Bruce gets up and tends to his rather excessive wounds. The car is still there, so Meredith has to still be around somewhere. He goes out into the woods, where he’s stashed previous bodies in big steel drums. He’s got a head wound, and he starts hallucinating.
He runs through the woods in terror until he runs into a strange woman in a white mask. He flees to the car but gets stuck right away. The weird creatures surround him, “Murderer! Thief!” They shout.
Bruce runs back into the house and has a crazy argument with himself. He battles his inner and outer demons for a long while. He offers them the sculpture of the revenge-gods. He makes an impassioned speech about his own mental illness.
The mask-woman, now covered in snakes, asks Bruce questions about his kills, and he has no choice but to answer. He doesn’t want to kill, but the owl-thing makes him do it. The she-gods torment him all night to get him to admit that he’s a murderer and a thief.
The sun comes up, Bruce kills himself, and we see Meredith, who has duct-taped her wound and survived.
Commentary:
I wasn’t expecting much from the movie’s description and poster, but this was really interesting and tense all the way through. We aren’t quite sure what’s going on with Bruce, and he sometimes seems almost sympathetic.
It’s something of a feminist film. It’s something of a folk-horror film. It’s mostly a revenge story as the dead women Bruce has killed turn against him. Still, Bruce has probably the longest, most drawn-out death throes I’ve ever seen, continuing throughout the entire end credits!