
Wonderful reviews and a killer trailer brought me to this film. It’s one of those films I had never heard of, but since it bears the Shudder name, I will give it a shot, regardless of a middle of the road rating on IMDb.
Synopsis:
Patrick, a strange and lonely resident, lives in a mobile home at the back of an isolated trailer park. After a violent storm, a mysterious young woman appears at his door seeking shelter from the elements.
IMDb: 5.8
Rotten Tomatoes: 79%
Tagline: A psychological thriller-horror on paranoia and gender power dynamics.
Indianna Bell and Josiah Allen, in their feature film debut, directed this Australian film starring a two-person cast of Brendan Rock (Carnifex) and Jordan Cowan (Wolf Creek 2). Shudder released the film in March of 2024.
This is one of those movies where one person is not who they seem, and the characters in the movie know more than the audience. As tension escalates, and a foreboding tone and sound effects coupled with some spooky music, the film builds up the anticipation for the entirety of the 90 minutes. It’s a fairly standard yet mysterious plot device. The question is, then, is it worth it? Does it have a payoff?
With this set up, you need to get clues along the way, something to keep you glued to the screen and wanting to get the full explanation. This girl seems like such a sweet girl stuck in a bad situation, the trailer of a crazy paranoid single old man. Is there something supernatural going on? Serial killer, maybe? Is he hiding for some reason? What secrets are they hiding?
The sound is amazing. The creaking boards, the non-stop tense music, the storm raging from quiet to out of control, the lines that are uttered barely above a whisper at times, and the noise that plays when he looks down the hall or hums the song that played at the beginning of the movie. It’s good stuff. It really sets the scene and the mood.
The acting is also superb. Rock is a flawed man with a secret that is trying to accommodate this young stranger, going out of his way to make her feel comfortable but in every way, but instead, he is making her more UN-comfortable. And Cowan is the scared young girl who acts like a fly that has flown into a spider’s web.
Without going into too much more of the film due to not wishing to spoil anything, leaves me a little stumped with how to comment any further. Yes, there’s a twist ending. Yes, it’s not what I expected. Yes, it is a bit confusing and leaves the film kind of pointless and useless. But unlike High Tension, where you want to go back and see if the film is possible or not after THAT ending, THIS ending doesn’t have that same effect. It’s kind of a one and done type of thriller.
Overall, it’s a decent enough time waster. It’s got a lot of atmosphere and once again, the soundtrack is perfect. I just wish the ending had been a bit different. Watch it for a fun Friday night excursion with your lady friend (your male friend will think this is probably a little lame) and be entertained for 90 minutes. That fun will wear off after it’s over, though, and you’ll forget about the film, never to see it again.