The Lodge (2019) NEON/Horror RT: 108 minutes Rated R (disturbing violence, some bloody images, language, brief nudity) Director: Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala Screenplay: Sergio Casci, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala Music: Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans Cinematography: Thimios Bakatakis Release date: February 21, 2020 (Philadelphia, PA) Cast: Riley Keough, Jaeden Martell, Lia McHugh, Alicia Silverstone, Richard Armitage. Box Office: $3.2M (US)
Rating: ***
The new horror film The Lodge, the latest from Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, is something of a paradox. It knows how to toy with an audience BUT the audience it will most likely attract already knows they’re being toyed with. Knowing this, they’re able to keep in step if not one step ahead of it.
But don’t go by my viewing experience. Just because I figured out The Lodge early on, it doesn’t mean everybody will. It’s likely some viewers will come to it cold, not knowing what to expect. They’re the ones in for a real mind trip, especially if they’re not familiar with the directors’ dark MO as seen in their stunning debut picture, the freaky Austrian horror piece Goodnight Mommy. While their sophomore effort isn’t quite on the same level, it’s still fairly effective. And weird, we mustn’t forget that.
When Richard (Armitage, the Hobbit trilogy) tells his wife Laura (Silverstone, The Killing of a Sacred Deer) he wants to finalize their divorce so he can marry his girlfriend Grace (Keough, American Honey), the devout Catholic goes home, puts a gun in her mouth and pulls the trigger. Their two children, teenager Aidan (Martell, It 1 & 2) and younger sis Mia (McHugh of the sitcom American Woman), don’t take it well. Six months later, they’re less than enthused about the idea of them spending Christmas with Grace at the family’s lodge in a remote area of the mountains. Richard would like his children to get to know and hopefully come to like the woman he plans to marry. Judging by their openly hostile behavior towards her, that outcome is highly unlikely.
The kids blame Grace for their mother’s death. They resent her presence in their father’s life and don’t want her in theirs. Also, they know a dark secret from her past. As a child, she was the only survivor of a doomsday cult’s mass suicide orchestrated by her father, the leader. It left her unstable and in need of daily medication. Despite their objections, the four head off to the lodge with Grace’s cute little dog in tow. The kids continue to freeze her out. Then Richard announces he has to return home for a few days for a work obligation. Without giving anything away (hopefully), things start to get weird after he leaves, weird to the point where Grace begins to unravel. It might be something or it might all be in her head. You’ll never hear it from me.
Keough is a true revelation in The Lodge. Her blank facial expressions serve her well in this case. It’s almost impossible to get a read on her or her intentions with such an inscrutable façade. She becomes more and more unpredictable as she gradually loses her already tenuous hold on her sanity. Keough plays it just right with the appropriate levels of civility, impatience and paranoia. Martell basically does what It co-star Finn Wolfhard did in January’s The Turning. He either sullenly ignores Grace or behaves in an aggressively hostile manner towards her. It’s a character we’ve met before, but Martell does it well. It’s a little different with McHugh. Franz and Fiala, who co-wrote the screenplay with Sergio Casci, give her a little more to work with by having her character worried over her mother’s soul being denied entry to Heaven because suicide is a mortal sin in the Catholic Church. Silverstone, in a very brief appearance, proves there’s still life after Clueless.
Claustrophobia is the descriptive word of the day when it comes to The Lodge. Like the characters, one gets the feeling of being trapped in a tight space from which there is no logical escape. A massive snowstorm has Grace and the kids trapped in a house with no electricity, running water, food or means of transportation. Walking to the nearest town (NOT close) is out of the question with the freezing temperatures outside. The open space surrounding the lodge is more threatening than comforting. The directors make effective use of space and symmetry. Cinematographer Thimios Bakatakis lenses The Lodge is such a way that the angles seem unnaturally sharp and the outside light especially harsh. All of it works together to create a palpable sense of unease.
Religious imagery also plays an important role in The Lodge. Grace’s experiences with the cult combined with her guilt over Laura’s suicide make her feel extremely uncomfortable surrounded by the Catholic iconography around the home; the crosses in particular. It’s all symbolic of Laura’s strong presence in the lodge and the lives of her children.
The Lodge will mainly appeal to those that dig more cerebral horror like Hereditary and The Lighthouse. It’s not scary in the same sense as The Invisible Man. It’s more disturbing than anything else. It creeps up on you, buries itself under your skin and causes great discomfort. But like I said, its target audience will probably find it predictable. I suppose that’s not the worst thing in the world since The Lodge will definitely leave an impression on the psyche which gives it a clean and clear edge over a lot of recent horror movies.
