Tlisted here are echoes of the Turpin case and Josef Fritzl’s basement on this tense arthouse horror shot in grainy 16mm with auteurish confidence by first-time film-maker Corey Deshon. It opens with a declare to be “extra primarily based on truth than fiction”, however really tells a wholly fictional story concerning the kidnapping of a younger lady (Vivien Ngô) who wakes up shackled to the ground in a storage. In entrance of her stands a person recognized solely as Father (Casper Van Dien). You possibly can inform immediately from his plaid checked shirt, beige slacks and straight-backed posture that he’s the kind of Christian you don’t mess with in a horror film: healthful trying, however unhinged.
“We’re not violent individuals,” Father tells the chained-up lady, sounding nearly affordable. It’s not true. In a disturbing, disorientating scene over the opening credit we’ve simply watched him in a gasoline masks chase down one other younger lady and bludgeon her to dying. This new lady is her alternative, kidnapped by Father to be a giant sister to his son, Brother (Ian Alexander), a frail boy of about 11. Brother has been raised in isolation, taught that air within the outdoors world is poisonous. Rounding off the creepy household is Mom performed with good slyness by Elyse Dinh: is she a quietly submissive spouse, or simply giving a superb efficiency?
At factors I questioned if it is a movie that tells us something about something. A few of its concepts really feel a bit thrown collectively. There aren’t any agency clues as to Father’s motives: he comes throughout as a person who’d prefer to have been an authoritarian cult chief if solely he had the mandatory charisma. However different characters really feel a bit under-written – notably Brother, who we sense is raring to please his dad, and probably his successor.