The new horror film The Lodge screened at Nightmares Film Festival 2019, and watching it made for an intriguing yet unsettling experience. Using a screenplay co-written with Segio Casci, the movie comes from directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala. As a slow burn film, it might not offer as many blood or bodies as other R-rated horror movies, but The Lodge is creepy on a whole other level as the story only grows more and more disturbing with each passing scene.
The film is set in a remote lodge in the midst of a winter snowstorm, putting the characters inside miles away from the rest of civilization. It begins with a widowed father introducing his two young children to their new stepmother Grace, though they clearly still haven’t gotten over the loss of their biological mother. Hoping to get to know her new stepson and stepdaughter a bit better, Grace agrees to watch them while their father is away on business. Tensions are high, but things go from bad to worse when very strange events begin to happen at the lodge – and the minds of the people inside begin to unravel.
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One of the aspects of The Lodge which made the film work so well would be its on-point acting. Horror fans will immediately recognize It and It: Chapter Two star Jaeden Martell as Aidan, the older of the two children. The Eternals star Lia McHugh co-stars as Mia, Aidan’s younger sister. Perhaps it’s because both children have plenty of experience acting in horror films, but their chilling performances make what happens in The Lodge that much more believable. Tons of credit must also be given to lead actress Riley Keough, who bears more than a striking resemblance to her mother Lisa Marie Presley, as she fantastically pulls off each of the many layers of her troubled character.
The Lodge also thrives on its dark and dreary atmospheric horror. At a certain point, you may start to feel cabin fever along with the characters in the film. As the bizarre phenomena continues to unfold, it becomes increasingly difficult to tell what’s really happening in the titular house, but the story only gets more chilling when we finally start getting some answers. Again, to be clear, the film doesn’t rely on jump-scares and similar horror tropes to be frightening, instead delivering on that aspect through its atmosphere, performances, and compelling story.
With all of these high points aside, where The Lodge managed to impress me the most is with just how much it managed to get under my skin. It’s imperative not to spoil the story in any way, so without expanding upon too much of these feelings here, what I can say is that the events of what happened in the movie left me deeply disturbed, thinking about the film long after it was over. In short, you could say the movie definitely haunts me, and if that was the goal of the filmmakers, they have certainly achieved it.
Courtesy of NEON, The Lodge will have its wide theatrical release in the United States on Feb. 7, 2020.

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