OK, so these guys are going on my list of favourite directors based on our earlier viewing of Spring and my immense enjoyment of these two. They are using the immediate tropes of horror & tension, but attaching the story to a very out-there scifi aspect. In The Endless they had expanded on the world they laid the groundwork for, in this movie.
At its heart, this is a buddy movie. Mike has tracked his highschool friend Chris to a remote cabin in the woods. Chris is an unrepentant junkie, and he did not send the video that inspired Mike to come save his friend. Nonetheless, Mike will do his best.
What begins is more an exploration of a setting, than a traditional plot. Something is going on in these hills. Whatever it is, the local hippy cult is involved. So are the local drug dealers that also went to high school with Mike and Chris. The local tribal police own the building that Chris is squatting in, or so they say. And the scientist in the crappy trailer. And the lost dog. They are all being tossed together to make an interesting story that Chris and Mike are getting mixed up in. Whenever Mike seems ready to complete Chris's rehab, or give up and move on, more mysterious and compelling clues show up. Something or someone wants these guys to stick around.
The horror elements are intense. They may be slow burning, but they burn steadily. Something is going on, something definitely Not of this World. The manipulations go from subtle to shocking, but what really drew me in was that they hinted at a bigger thing going on. Old Ones? Alien intervention? Powerful magics? We never get an explanation... Even when the movie comes to a conclusion, both for the pair of guys and for us the viewers, we get little in the way of explanation, but another question that keeps us (and them) around.
I am now hoping for a trilogy.
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