Okay, so this movie had potential on the page. Unfortunately, that's where its potential stopped. The movie begins with a man and a woman arguing in silhouette shadows against a curtain. There isn't much movement and is used only for the conversation to introduce the thriller portion that LMN thrillers are known for. Next up are the introductions to the protagonist, her family (one of whom through marriage is her Uncle though he is never referred to as his title throughout the movie; only "my Aunt's husband the antagonist). Soon after we meet the neighbor next door and the best friend. Aunt Grace is her only living relative as far as we know and she has a house that she and her husband barely use together anymore as they each have their own digs in the city and Aunt Grace is leaving for a photography job in Africa. Her husband Paul doesn't want to sell it and Aunt Grace wants to offload it because apparently they purchased it during the happier time in their marriage which has over the years eroded her view on it to what I like to call "historical happiness." So right from the jump Paul is way too over possessive about the house. After Grace has worn him down she simply tells him her niece Maddie will be staying there. Prickly, Paul makes it clear early on that Maddie is not welcome. Firstly, by just telling her she's not welcome and then genuinely trying to creep her out (not hard to do since Paul's default setting is creepy). Maddie decides that maybe she wants to try photography like her Aunt (she literally has no direction after flunking out of college hence the trip to reconnect with Aunt Grace) and so Aunt Grace gives Maddie permission to use any camera and developing items necessary to spark her interest again. Next we see Maddie taking pictures all over the barren place where we are introduced to the two things she unknowingly stumbles upon, her damaged phone (no service out there anyway but who would damage it?) and Kevin the hot neighbor. Soon after we see that Kevin and Paul are not friends and do not, in fact, get along. We don't see Kevin again until the meet cute where he is looking for his cat Jazzy and comes upon Maddie setting up her photography "base camp" and he startles her because she is wearing earbuds and can't hear him approaching or trying to get her attention. Here is the first of many "nope can't believe this scene went so bad so quickly" because startled Maddie isn't just surprised but she is angry to the point that she has to shout to him that she is in fact wearing earbuds! Um, yep the whole world caught the BRIGHT WHITE corded earbuds from the early 2000's- everyone but Kevin apparently. But the meet cute finishes as Kevin tells Maddie about his lost cat. Finally the last character of our sad little poorly acted film comes into frame. It wouldn't be LMN if there wasn't (drumroll please....) a best friend! Layla is perky and untrusting with just the right amount of Millennial curiosity (how else would we move things along and have everything explained to us as we go?) mixed in with the best friend loyalty that needs to happen so that said facts can be unearthed? Here is where it gets wonkey. They spend SO much time on the backstory that the rest of the movie has to be (and does feel exactly that way with so many typical cliched events) rushed. The best friend, the neighbor (who yes despite his girlfriend he was moving in with being "missing" and he himself being über skeptical as to why she's gone) just up and knocks boots with the newest hot neighbor. They gave him a lost cat and bumbling ways to try and make him feel sensitive and caring yet he's hooking up with this random new neighbor very soon after said girlfriend is missing? Nope no way not buying it. But it doesn't matter because as I said cliches abound and he is killed along with the best friend during this rushed second act! After half of the cast is now dead they reveal the how and the why (both trite and ill fitting). So after all of the main action is over here comes Aunt Grace literally while the police are locking down the crime scene! The final ending, almost "Epiloguesque" shows Maddie and Aunt Grace a year later at a weird gallery and Maddie is having a show using all of the pics from the dead people. Weird since after only one year Maddie has her show. She's not been to a single class on photography, and all of her pictures are basically portraits of dead people with no composition. It literally looks like pictures of random people as someone walks through a house snapping person after person. No setting, no lighting, no reference points. Nothing. Oh but they are all REALLY big! Each portrait is about 30"X40". And oddly enough they all have the title cards next to them which only have the title (our little Maddie is SO clever- she named each one of them with their first name)! Her name is below said "title". Nothing else. Here is the "Epiloguesque" part- Maddie is talking to Aunt Grace about her future (since this whole thing started with her bailing on college and being poor and homeless) that might possibly include going to "photography college." Hmmm, so you have had your first show and now you want proper training? Very Maddie the Millennial thing to do (I say Maddie the Millennial as this is something I feel that is part of her childish personality and not that of an entire generation. There have been Millennials by and by that have made amazing contributions to our world; it's just that Maddie isn't one of them. This conversation literally walks us through the end of the movie. This is the second time I've seen Emily Roslyn Villareal in a LMN movie. Here's the thing, she is okay as a secondary character actor but she shouldn't be a lead (as in not the main actress nor the best friend; she should be the nanny or the neighbor's girlfriend). She seems like a sweet lady who legitimately tries but she has the same problem a lot of newer actors / actresses, she only has one style. Her face literally has two emotions (surprised with a big smile and surprised without a big smile. And the reviewer that said she talks through her teeth but her lips and face don't move is 100% right. She also does that thing where the last word of every sentence is drawn out like a happy whine...it's so annoying. She's like a cheerleader ventriloquist! It's like her face is paralyzed so she can't show emotion, which is kind of a necessary skill as an actor. Or apparently not for an LMN actress). She also has no idea what a septic tank is- okay I might believe that except once Paul talks about the dead animal in the septic tank as being the cause of her "blood bath" and she doesn't ask what a septic tank is (as in what else is it connected to that it might have an effect on?) or how it works? Aunt Grace is the most believable for the little time she's on screen. The neighbor Kevin is a cartoon collaboration of boy next door, idiot character actor and boyfriend looking for the truth... and his cat which btw he does for a lot of the movie. So he was in love with Kaycee and she disappears but almost as soon as Maddie arrives he's all over her? Why is he not sad about someone he was in love with? And he's named his boy cat Jazzy but he has a pink collar? And for someone who lives out in the middle of nowhere he's got no clue about some things he should be an expert in (Paul and Kaycee- I'm sure Kaycee filled him in on Paul's megalomaniacal odd ways that made her feel uncomfortable; not full blown knowledge but at least some unease) and he (and every other LMN character that's EVER needed it LOL!) knows how to pick a lock! I'm shocked this character could open a lock with a key he's so emo giggly! So Kevin waffles back and forth between spy stealth and bumbling nice guy next door, with no believability. On to Paul, the villain, I especially loved his paramilitary sweatsuit complete with sweatpants tucked into his combat boots AND a tool belt to make the silhouette that much more comical oh I mean tactical! Paul kills Kaycee, Layla, and Kevin but the dimwitted Maddie gets the best of him? With a shovel? And the doctor whose carbon monoxide detectors were unplugged? So he plans to kill this doctor and make it look like an accident but as he stages the scene he doesn't get rid of the detectors? And spraying lavender isn't going to mask the scent of a dead body that's that old and that far along in the decomposition process- especially with the thermostat set at "68 degrees" (cold enough to arise suspicion but not to effect the dead body). I understand that to watch LMN movies you have to have a higher than normal ability to suspend your disbelief, which as my guilty pleasure I do on a regular basis, but for this movie you will have to throw it entirely out the window! The story is the typical LMN thriller variety so it is what it is; I've seen better and worse. But it literally looks like a film student trying to shoot a film for his or her demo reel who had no budget and no choice but to cast friends so they wouldn't need to be paid! Who produced this? Dawson Leery? That I would believe LOL!
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