‘The Lodge’ starts off great but doesn’t amount to much

by Megan Bianco

When the trailer for Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala’s “The Lodge” first dropped last year, my main takeaway was how spot on the casting of Riley Keough and Alicia Silverstone was. The two actresses could easily pass for relatives in a film – which is what I was hoping for in this feature.

While this turned out to not be the case with the new horror movie “The Lodge,” the casting of these two was definitely intentional and still fitting for the story. Neon Films has been somewhat gaining traction as a possible rival to A24’s own stellar rep for releasing quality independent films, and here we see the former almost challenge the latter.

The beginning of “The Lodge” feels like a knockoff of Ari Aster’s “Hereditary,” which was one of the best horror films of the past decade. There’s a traumatic death in the family, visual metaphors using a miniature dollhouse, a main character’s past association with a cult, and of course, an eerie and ominous music score. But by the mid-point, it starts to feel like its own thing.

Keough’s Grace is a lone survivor of a notorious religious cult from her childhood and becomes involved with recently divorced family man named Richard (Richard Armitage). His kids, Aiden (Jaeden Martell) and Mia (Lia McHugh) resent Grace for not being their mother, Laura (Silverstone). When Grace, Aiden, and Mia are stuck in the family’s lodge for an extended weekend, things begin to get strange and surreal.

Ironically, the most interesting moments of “The Lodge” are in the first half, when it’s toggling between inspiration and plagiarism of “Hereditary.” I think Franz & Fiala could have had a lot of potential here, especially with their previous horror film, “Goodnight Mommy,” being a hit with critics. Unfortunately, what should be an effective slow burn in “The Lodge” runs out of steam by the third act. There’s a plot twist that is revealed like an afterthought with hardly any effect, and by the end, the characters aren’t likable enough for us to care about the outcome.

The cast, especially Keough and Martell, are impressive throughout the feature, and the atmosphere is creepy, though a bit redundant. But plot-wise, there are better films already out there with similar themes you can already enjoy.

Megan Bianco

Share:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Social Media

Most Popular

Get The Latest Updates

Subscribe To Our Weekly Newsletter

No spam, notifications only about new products, updates.

Categories

On Key

Related Posts

70s idioms

25 Freaky deaky 70s idioms

From the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment, there has been no shortage of periods in history that have shaped society in terms of scientific

hip-hop

One-Hit Wonders of Hip-Hop

In the 50 years since its inception, hip-hop has become a powerful force to be reckoned with. Born in the Bronx and raised by Black

Receive the latest news

Subscribe To Our Weekly Newsletter

Get notified about new articles

Explore the weed life with DGO Magazine

Contact Information

Find Us Here:

Leave us a message