Christina Loglio

A creepy and slow burning film that leads to a gory climax of revenge that doesn’t quite satisfy, since the who, what, why and how are never so much explained as just subtlety hinted at. The setting is a dinner party at a wealthy and dysfunctional families’ very modern/newly built masterpiece home. The hired “help” is Cadi- an eerily quiet girl, who’s odd behavior and voyeuristic antics suggest there’s much more to her than meets the eye. Although that question is never fully answered… the audience is shown enough (SPOILERS) that we learn she is some kind of forest/nature spirit who has been disturbed by the wealthy families mining of their land. On their side of the border. The dinner party consists of the couple, their 2 adult sons (who are disappointments in their own unique ways), their business “partner” and their family friend/neighbor who they share their bordered land with. The point of the party is to convince the neighbor to “sell out”, which will ultimately make her and her farmer husband rich like them. There is an atmospheric haunting quality to almost every scene, some disgusting body horror, a couple of tense interactions, but ultimately it was difficult to become invested in the overall story or with any of the characters- since so little information is left until the end. And since the majority of the characters are terrible people, save for Cadi. We think… although her behavior is too strange and questionable to encourage any desire to side with her, or even feel like she is relatable. The only other character that is somewhat forgiving is the middle son, who is a recovering drug addict who hates his family and wants out. And even then the audience is left too unattached to any character or their fate. The themes of “eating the rich” and “whoring the land”, and Cadi’s direct connection to the other side of that coin- “Mother Nature”, are evident early on, yet there is much of the story behind the story that is underdeveloped. But if you enjoy beautiful cinematography, great acting and atmospheric slow burns that say less and reveal even lesser- this movie will give you that, but will present what it is lacking on a platter.