The Lodge (2019)

The Lodge (2019)

Directors: Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz

Writer: Sergio Casci, Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala

Cast: Riley Keough, Jaeden Martell, Lia McHugh, Richard Armitage, Alicia Silverstone

The psychological thriller. That subgenre of horror that likes to pretend that it isn’t horror at all. Usually, it keeps away from its closest relative to stay attractive to a wider audience, or even to contend with its more respected colleagues for awards—I’ll someday write a piece on why that’s crap—but most of us aren’t easily fooled. This subgenre is horror at its core and there’s no denying that. It focuses on your mind in ways that other facets of horror don’t, and that’s one element that lends it to being one of the more artistic subgenres. There’s freedom to operate with or without a formula and that paves the way for stories that are as subtle as they are disturbing. The Lodge takes us on that subtle journey that feels like a long, nerve-wracking first climb of a roller coaster with a steep and fast plummet once you’re over the hill that leaves your stomach in your throat.

The Lodge is the story of siblings, Aiden (Jaeden Martell) and Mia (Lia HcHugh), who spend a few days in a lodge tormenting their father’s fiancée, Grace (Riley Keough), who they feel is a dangerous replacement for their late mother. This story is one hell of a slow burn. We don’t really get a lot of horror until late in the movie, but I was very okay with that because the characters are what really what made it and time was spent crafting them and showing us their personalities, allowing us to get acquainted and even start feeling for them before everything takes that freefall into darkness. The relationship between Aiden and Mia was deep and powerful, having found its strength in mourning their mother’s death and mutually disliking their father’s fiancée, whom they appropriately found suspicious. There was a genuine relatability to their bond that I found endearing and made me root for them for a large portion of the movie. That was, until they decided to torment Grace purely out of protest. True, Grace was a survivor of a deathly cult and turned out to be as dangerous as the kids suspected, but this story teaches a couple of things from the kids’ behavior: Firstly, you never know what people are going through; and secondly, there’s always a consequence for your actions. In this case, the kids took Grace’s medication, which unbeknownst to them kept her sane, along with other items and made her believe through a series of other tricks that she was dead and they were in purgatory. Well, you can probably see how that turned an effective idea into a dangerous one.

What I liked most about the movie was we, the audience, were forced to endure the torment through Grace’s point-of-view while thinking we were watching this with the kids’ well being in mind. This was smart storytelling with a strong message delivered in the darkest package the filmmakers could find. Granted, there were quite a bit of clichés showcased but they didn’t bother me. They seemed to have been used well in giving us the illusion that something paranormal was happening. All in all, we were duped. However, it wasn’t the kind of surprise in which we could swear we heard the director mutter “Gotcha” from somewhere in the back of our minds. It was subtle as everything else and was really more of just another plot device rather than a twist, which I appreciated. It doesn’t condescend to its audience.

From the cinematography aspect, the shots used throughout the movie were so well thought out. No shot was unnecessary and had a hand in telling the story rather than simply showing us some talking heads. There were tighter shots in the beginning, and they became a bit wider as the story moved forward then got tight again in the end. The waxing and waning of shots keeps your attention moving at the pace of the story, ensuring that you don’t know what’s going on until it’s determined that you’re good and ready. The closer shots indoors with nearly no closeups outdoors achieved the goal of putting you in the lodge with the characters. I don’t think I’ve yet to mention a favorite shot in a review so far, but I would like to point out my favorite one in this. Near the end, at the pinnacle of Grace’s descent back into the madness her meds kept her away from, she’s in the attic with the kids and the most prominent visual to the religious theme of the movie comes when the boards that line the ceiling form a crown-like halo around her head. It was beautifully placed and not at all a spoon-fed moment. For a second, we’re shown Grace’s emergence to what she truly is before seeing an ending that gives us disturbingly conflicting feelings over the fate of everyone.

While the pacing can be a little slow at times, The Lodge remains an intelligent, subtle roller coaster of a movie with superb character development and tension building and is well worth the time. It will remind you why psychological thrillers are indeed horror movies. It’ll have you climbing that first incline, not realizing that you’ll soon be falling into darkness until all you see is black.

The Lodge is available on Hulu, Amazon Prime, YouTube, and Google Play.