- Director: David Creed
- Writer: David Creed
- Stars: Tamaryn Payne, Emily Wyatt, Sian Abrahams
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 23 Minutes
Synopsis
A man screams and runs out of the house; he’s covered in blood and suddenly starts to smile. He bursts into flame and burns to death just inches from the swimming pool. Credits roll.
One year later, the guy who assaulted Trisha a while back has been released from jail because of COVID (although not one person in the entire film is shown wearing a mask). The four girls decide to go on a road trip to take Trish’s mind off the problems.
On the road, the GPS goes out, and they have to use a map. As they dig for it, we see Checkov’s Flare Gun (in a van?). They soon pick up a hitchhiker, Vinnie. He’s going to a pagan festival in Mabon, the town where the girls are staying. The creepy-but-silent groundskeeper opens the gate and gives them the key to the country home they’ll be staying in. It’s the same house where we saw the man burn in the pre-credit sequence.
Vinnie comes by that night and invites them all to a party out in the woods. The pagans are fittingly quiet, and the girls show up to watch. It’s not quite the kind of party they expected. The priest announces, “Tonight we celebrate our offering to the Goddess Mabon.” He has everyone write down their greatest fears and burn them in the fire.
Mrs. March comes over and warns the girls to go away right now, but the priest interrupts and encourages them to stay. They all dance with the group to some evil country music.
They all go back to the house late at night. Trisha dreams of her stalker that night. The next morning, strange visions and scary encounters plague the group.
Stacy has an unfortunate accident with garden shears in the greenhouse. The others start to search for her. Mrs. Marsh catches up to them as tells them they are in great danger. They were the offering that night, and Mabon is going to be coming for them. Meanwhile, Mabon has appeared in the backyard of the house.
One by one, the girls’ numbers start dwindling. Finally, it’s time for one more ritual… and that flare gun we all forgot about.
Commentary
Let’s do a quick inventory of ingredients:
- Small village in the British countryside
- An isolated country house
- Pagans
- Four girls in a van
- No phone signal
What could possibly happen? About exactly what you’d expect. This is about as “by-the-book” as a horror film can get. It’s well done. It’s technically very well made. The acting is fine. The deaths are pretty good. The only problem is that there is literally nothing new or innovative here.