- Directed by Justin Gallaher, Sam Roseme
- Written by Justin Gallaher, Sam Roseme
- Stars Bob Clendenin, Roland Buck III, Katelyn MacMullen, Natasha Esca
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkHr4WUQq_8
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It mashes up a few ideas that have been explored before and does a nice job with it. Ghosts in the machine and an evil AI meet mental illness and isolation. This was work by cast and crew with relatively little previous work under their belts, and it was a win overall.
Synopsis
A girl sleeps in her bed, and the door opens, revealing a strange red blinking light. She goes outside to play, and sees the window of her house “glitch.” The smart house detects the little girl walking around inside. The girl gets sucked into the red light, and the smart home says, “All Clear.”
The Realtor shows a young couple the house, and it’s really fancy. The previous tenant just vanished for some reason. Eva and Miguel like the place, but she wants a place in a gated community. Their house in Mexico City was supposed to be safe, but that didn’t work out well. The Realtor “overhears” that, so she shows them the security system. They agree to take the place and leave.
The Realtor goes to leave, but the security system says there’s still someone on the third floor. The system won’t allow her to leave, and she gets a little creeped out. We watch newspaper headlines about a serial killer as the credits roll.
Almost as soon as they enter the new house, Miguel has to fly back to Mexico City for business. He’ll be gone for a week, and Eva doesn’t feel safe in the house alone. But he assures her it’s a safe neighborhood. Plus, there’s a nice security system. Once he leaves, Eva explores the whole house.
That night, she can’t figure out how to turn the alarm on. The next morning the guy from Diablo Controls arrives; he’s the alarm technician. He shows her how to set up a passcode. He sets up her phone to sync with the system. He says that it’s all controlled by an AI that watches and learns her patterns. He mentions that the neighborhood is super quiet, and nothing ever happens there anyway. When she goes to bed, the house watches everything.
We see something glitchy on the security footage, almost like a ghost coming up the steps. Eva gets up to check it out, but the system says “All clear.”
Miguel calls, and she sets off the alarm accidentally. We see that the security system even watches her FaceTime calls. She goes out for a jog, and the system warns her on her phone that “motion detected at front door.” Turns out it’s the next-door neighbor bringing her cookies. She also mentioned that Eva should join “Neighbor Network” on the web to find out events. Still, the front door is wide open— could someone have gone in?
Eva replays the footage and notices the “glitch person” we saw last night. It’s obviously not a real person, so she thinks it’s just an error. She joins the Neighbor Network and reads about the burglaries in the area. The neighborhood is not as safe as they’d been told.
She has a nightmare that night about the intruder back in Mexico City, El Diablo. She calls her therapist the next morning to talk about it. Eva has survivor’s guilt; the doctor says that’s perfectly normal. When Miguel calls to say he needs two more days, the system deletes his voicemail.
Eva makes a fancy welcome-home dinner for Miguel. When he calls, she gets angry and drunk. She runs into Ray, the security guy, outside. He says there’s a system outage in the neighborhood; he’ll be by in the morning to reset things.
The security system somehow analyzes Eva’s dreams, so it knows what she fears. Ray stops by and sets up her system. She tells him about the glitch, and he mentions about seeing a young girl on the screen, but that’s only “artifacting.”
But after he leaves, the artifacting is still there. On-screen, she sees a small ghostly figure walking around inside the house. She goes to the Mexican church and buys a “Santa Muerte” statue for protection.
She gets a message from a crazy-sounding man who says he’s had lots of problems with his Diablo Controls security system. “Maybe there’s still time for you.” Later that morning, she meets up with the man on the sidewalk in front of his house. He tells her to leave and never go back; he can’t do it, as the system is watching him. A while later, the man’s house burns to the ground.
That night, the security system creates the serial killer from Mexico City in Eva’s room. She doesn’t wake up, but it’s all on the footage in the morning. She thinks she’s going crazy, and her therapist seems to think so too.
Miguel calls to say he’ll be home tomorrow morning. He also mentions that El Diablo, the serial killer, has been killed in Mexico City. If that’s true, then who is that on Eva’s security footage?
Eva screams at the security system and watches as El Diablo appears before her eyes. She runs upstairs to the computer closet and starts smashing things. She pulls out the CPU just in time.
That night, “El Diablo” returns and stabs Eva. They both disappear.
Miguel comes home, but he doesn’t see Eva anymore. She’s a glitch now too.
Commentary
It’s “Paranormal Activity” meets “Margeaux.”
It’s mostly one character alone in the house slowly going insane. The set is perfect, the cinematography is excellent, the special effects are appropriate, and the acting is good too. It starts to drag just a little when the man calls her about his own house, but not badly.
The story isn’t especially innovative or new, but it’s well-executed and entertaining. I liked it!