Honest Review: The Lodge (2019)

Major Spoilers Ahead!!

Yesterday night we watched The Lodge (2019) since we try to watch a horror movie every night before sleeping. The beginning was pretty unexpected and scary; it kind of reminded me of a Midsommaresque Ari Aster style type horror. The mom (Alicia Silverstone wtf?) shoots herself in the mouth because her husband found a new woman and wants to divorce Alicia. She leaves her two teenagers behind with their dad and the dad tries to have them get along with the new girlfriend, Grace.

Obviously, the kids do not like Grace because they think she killed her mom and do not want to spend time with her on Christmas at the lodge. The husband is stupid enough to go on a family trip to their lodge in the blizzard and bring along his new wife to be. The kids find out that Grace had a dad who was a cult leader and mass murdered people. He met Grace through this experience and the kids find out his case files on the murders that he collected for his book.

Grace is awkward with the kids obviously and is met with hostility by the eldest son (the IT boy Jaeden Martell). The youngest daughter is a bit better but she still does not really like her either. The dad has to leave to go to work back at home so he stupidly leaves a gun (for protection?!) with Grace and leaves her with the kids when there is a blizzard outside.

Grace finds out that all her possessions are missing, like her antipsychotic drugs, phone, bag, and she confronts the kids out of anger. She starts digging through their belongings and she finds out that their things are missing too. She starts tripping out and she thinks this is actually happening, because she is also having random nightmares about her dead father. She starts sleepwalking with a gun and almost shoots the boy. The blizzard gets worse and they are practically trapped in the lodge without a car. The dog goes missing and she starts to lose it. She starts walking around and around and finally finds the dog frozen to death. She sees the boy hanging on a noose and he starts to talk, making it seem as though all three of them are dead and this is their purgatory.

Soon after, she really goes mad and starts to act like her father and thinks that they are really in hell. The boy confesses that they played a prank on her and hid all their belongings. They tell her that it was a prank and that they're sorry about the dog. They even called the father everyday to make sure he doesn't come back to the lodge earlier. Grace brands herself with a metal rod and she goes insane. The father gets worried so he drives back to the lodge, finding Grace with a gun and pointing it at her head. She pulls the trigger but the gun does not fire correctly. He tells her to give him the gun and she shoots the father in the head, killing him. The teenagers run away with the car but it gets stuck in the snow. Grace ties them up on the dining table with a tape on their mouths with the words repent written on them. She starts singing a gospel song and the kids wait for their turns to get shot by Gracie.

This movie was actually pretty boring and I kept falling asleep throughout the middle. It is very slow paced, but it gives this chilling feeling throughout the whole film. The way that everything happens is a bit ridiculous, but also you get anxiety from what will happen next towards the end. The beginning of the film was amazing and shocked me when Alicia just shot herself out of nowhere. It was a bit slow towards the middle and the end, but it was still worth watching. It is a good quarantine movie because it's kinda like they are on lockdown with us.

Rating: 6.7/10!