There's an already-been-done-before element to
the movie, The Lodge, starting from the first scene. Meant to be a nod to the wildly acclaimed 2018 horror flick Hereditary, the shots of the doll house - that looks eerily real, and is dotted with foreshadow-y signs of what's to come - feel more deja vu than clever homage. However, the next ten minutes or so set up a promising premise. Here's a dysfunctional family, where the father (Richard Armitage) has left the mother of his two children (Alicia Silverstone) for a younger woman (Riley Keough). However, things get more dysfunctional still, when he announces he intends to marry his new girlfriend, Grace. Six months and a suicide later, the father, soon-to-be-stepmom and two children drive into the middle of nowhere, to spend their Christmas vacations in a cabin amidst blank, unending stretches of snow - i.e. the perfect setting for one to spiral into madness.Grace - labelled a 'psychopath' by Richard's kids, who also happens to be
the sole survivor of a suicide cult run by her dad - insists to Richard that she's ready to spend some one-on-one time with the children. But viewers are given a peek into her shaky psyche, when it's revealed that she's been hiding some things from him, including her bottle of medication, and the fact that she’s still horribly triggered by religious symbolism of any kind. Meanwhile, the children - Aiden (Jaeden Martell) and Mia (Lia McHugh) - who hold Grace responsible for their mother's death are quite open about their feelings of extreme animosity towards her. It’s when
the father leaves, and the trio are left alone, that things start to go wrong. They wake up one morning to find their food, jackets, heat, electricity and Grace’s medication gone. They’re now stuck in freezing conditions, miles away from civilisation, and it’s hard to figure out who is to blame for it. Is it Grace, who is known to sleepwalk and has clearly been struggling to deal with the children’s disdain for her, as well as the religious iconography and their dead mother’s memories all over the house? Or is it the children seeking their revenge and taking things too far? Or perhaps, it’s the supernatural that is to blame. The movie slow-burns its way to these answers, and we watch Grace unravel through the process. The past she’s been running away from catches up with her in the claustrophobic cabin, as she begins to hear her dead father’s voice, urging her to repent for her sins. It follows her as she tries to make her way to the next town for help, and is defeated by the unforgiving and equally stifling landscape. The environment of the film, be it the dark, unfriendly interiors of the cabin or the white, hostile exteriors, adds exponentially to its mood, and contributes towards the build-up to the chilling climax. Keough is restrained in her role as Grace, and rather than being melodramatic about it, she plays her as slightly off-kilter, which is quite effective.
The children - Martell and McHugh - do the job of inspiring both pity and disgust in you quite well. What lets
the movie down is its reliance on tropes used to death by horror movies in the past, without infusing enough fresh elements to keep the viewers completely hooked. At the same time, the plot has a few holes in it, and the film could have used tighter editing. Still, it’s got its moments, and makes for a rather disturbing and unsettling watch.