The Lodge

I watched this movie due to the fact I had many on social media talking about how this is the scariest thing they have seen recently. It stars Jaeden Martell and Lia McHugh as two children who’s parents are separated and something happens to the mother, I’m gonna try not to go too far into spoiler territory as it is still relatively new and being discovered, their father is ready to get remarried to Riley Keough who is actually a survivor of a mass suicide in the vein of the real life Heaven’s Gate mass suicide. Well Riley feels it be good for the kids to spend sometime with her just before Christmas, where better to bond than a secluded mountain cabin aka lodge, to me it wasn’t big enough to be a lodge, whatever. Of course their father still has to work in the city leaving the three of them in a lodge in the middle of snow and ice season. Well strange things begin to happen, material possessions disappear, power goes out and medication goes missing for Riley’s character. Won’t spoil it, the movie leads you where this could go a couple different ways and makes a decent choice with good moral implications then in the end just goes off the rails, I get where they, the directors, were coming from doing it, I just think it could have used some finessing and clean up to the concept. The biggest problem with this movie is the pacing, nothing happens for a good hour and there’s some moments where the bond and tension could be developed between the kids like Jaeden and Riley after a shower, but, more time rather be spent with her wandering in the snow. For me this is right behind The Turning in the run for worst horror/thriller of the year, this is definitely more on the thriller side and unless you get scared of the long takes of a character with music building waiting for a jump scare that does not come, then most won’t be affected by this. As I mentioned the I don’t know if you could call it a twist with what actually happens is interesting concept that I feel could make for some interesting projects. Overall, I was bored most of this and unless your home alone wanting a little fright without the actual scares or any gore than this might push you to keep a light on while you wait for your other to get home or fall asleep after. D.

Code 8

This is if I am not mistaken a Netflix platform exclusive release that came out the end of 2019. I tend to gravitate more towards science-fiction movies released directly to streaming than other genres because I love sci-fi especially the production design of them. Code 8 is a little different as it is a crime movie being disguised as a science-fiction movie, first the best part of a sci-fi movie is setting up the world we are witnessing, in this case what appears as a not so distant future where superhuman powers have manifested themselves (okay, now get X-Men out of your head). In this movie they are referred to as powered individuals and are classified based on their ability and strength, Robbie Awell is an electric class 5, that means he’s quite electrifying. His mother has ice powers and is sick, being a powered you have to sit out waiting for work similar to a migrant worker, needing money to help his mother he takes a job which ends up being for some robbery work ultimately reporting to a drug kingpin that deal in Psyke. Psyke is a drug that they get from taking spinal fluid from powered people creating hallucinations as a form of getting high. Of course a super power human movie would not be one without some force out trying to stop them, here it is the police armed with drones that can deploy robotic humanoid officers called Guardians. I started off quite enjoying this movie the setup, the world building with the Guardian program, then the more we got into this whole crime story and drug dealing it pulled away from me. Movies about drug dealing and running are probably on the lowest part of the totem pole for me, I don’t know why the subject material just does not interest me, I have never done drugs and don’t care to try, then they always seems to work in cliches of double crossing one of the dealers or runners. Strip that away from the movie and its a decent B rated science-fiction flick, I don’t think the acting was noteworthy, but it also did not suck. I think its fine for a little sci-fi action middle of the day you have nothing else to do or if you need to kill sometime on a flight.C.