- Directed by Dana Kippel
- Written by Dana Kippel
- Stars Dash Katz, Grace Patterson, Dana Kippel, Jadelyn Breier
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTwRhiTiDZU
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s more of a science fiction thriller than horror. There’s things to like about this one. It’s well made on a low budget. There’s some fun and weirdness and emotional moments that come across. But it stretches out a bit too long in the middle. And it didn’t click very well with the Horror Guys overall.
Synopsis
A woman asks “Did you find yourself?” about a hundred times as credits roll. We are introduced to the various characters through tarot-like character cards that tell us all about them. Summer calls her friends to see if they want to go on a kind of spiritual retreat. For some reason, if they make it through, they get a bunch of money. Somehow, Liz gets invited, but Summer doesn’t like her. Katie is super-hyper and already rich, so she doesn’t need the money, but she wants to come anyway.
At “The Game of Life,” the spiritual retreat place, Beale’s father asks Beale to take over the show this week. “Someone needs to take over. You have to follow the girls, record and analyze them and transmit to all dimensions. All they have to do to win is the one thing none of them ever do.” His father warns him not to warn the girls.
Summer, Katie. Nia, Liz, and Annie run into Hermes, a weirdo in the desert selling spiritual supplies. When they get to the retreat, Hermes has already gotten there ahead of them. He has them all dress in outfits that look like they came from “Midsommar.” He’s very weird. He takes their cell phones and snacks.
The group meets Gepeto, a big guy with a beard who plays didgeridoo. The girls all play “I hate when you…” with each other. It comes out that Summer’s boyfriend, James, has been texting Liz on the side. She wasn’t interested, as she doesn’t even play for that team. Liz has a flashback to her mother watching a preacher on TV. The preacher starts talking directly to Liz, and he calls her an abomination. She goes back to the car, but she doesn’t get there.
Katie tells Summer that Annie tried to kill herself last year, and they don’t know why. Hermes talks about some more metaphysical stuff and they all go to sleep.
In the morning, Hermes is gone, and has been replaced by Inanna. Inanna likes to dance. As all this stuff is going on, Beale is there, hiding and commenting on all the proceedings. Annie and Nia both have visions. They all wonder what happened to Liz, who vanished last night. Inanna gives them lemons to drink. She swears there aren’t drugs in the lemons, but the weirdness that follows contradicts that.
The girls encounter a pair of hikers on their anniversary, and they both talk like they’re on helium. They run into Zero, Moon, and Kai, three goths, who don’t say much. NIa tells Katie that she slept with James and that she didn’t tell Summer. Nia hallucinates her very angry mother. Her mother then turns into a black-robed figure and Nia is gone.
Summer and Annie talk about “Shadow People” and ants. They see some kind of colorful ball in the sky– is it a “portal?” Summer admits that there is no cash prize. Beale reports that they have lost both Liz and Nia now. “They didn’t make it.”
Katie runs to the three goths and accuses them of taking Nia, but they deny it. They’re out there drinking fake blood, and they’re doing some kind of weird ritual thing themselves. Katie confesses her eating disorder to them. The trio tells her she has advanced to the next course.
Annie hallucinates about her drug problem, and then she’s out too, leaving Summer as the final contestant.
Beale and his father argue about him finishing the show. Beale doesn’t ant to go on, but he has to.
Katie finds a magic glowing ball in the woods and she steps inside. She has more flashbacks about her childhood. Summer confronts her own mother who abandoned her when she was little. Summer makes peace with her mother, and a hooded figure asks, “Did you find yourself?” The figure says she has to kill Summer; only one of them can survive on this world.
The hooded figures pull out the character cards we saw earlier. Are they the four “losers?” Beale announces Summer as the newest winner.
Commentary
It’s very low budget, but the scenery and location shoots are very nice. The excellent cinematographer works really hard here to make a very talky movie more interesting.
It’s full of spiritual mumbo-jumbo that you get in these kinds of retreats, which makes it funny when it ends up actually being magical, but it went on too long. The interminable spiritual babble goes on and on, and Kevin about halfway through, grumbled, “How much longer does this thing go on? It started out so well.”
The trailer calls this “Comedy – Sci-Fi – Thriller.” It’s definitely weird, but I wouldn’t call this sci-fi or comedy, and it’s just barely a thriller. It’s definitely not horror. Granted, we two guys probably aren’t the intended audience for this, but I’m not really sure who is.
It had a lot of quirky characters that were funny at times, and the visuals really are quite good. That said, it was tediously talky at times. If you’re looking for a satirical look at spirituality and those “magical retreats,” then give this one a look.