Goodnight Mommy was a movie that made a seasoned film critic such as myself say, “More like Greatnight Mommy” right up until its twist. Twists more often than not are terrible and should be avoided at all costs. That said, it was a beautiful and grueling film full of darkness and mystery before its ending. There was more than enough good in Goodnight Mommy to keep me interested in what directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala plan to do with their latest, The Lodge.
The trailer shows plenty that reminds me of the better aspects of Goodnight Mommy–what with two children isolated with an unfamiliar mother figure in a building percolating with mutual distrust–and the cult angle has me intrigued.
The Lodge follows Grace, a woman about to marry into the family of Richard and his two children. The four head to a cabin on vacation, but Richard has to leave, and Grace stays with the children. A blizzard traps the trio in their cabin, and now Grace’s cult-survivor past returns for its repentant retribution. It looks like Franz and Fiala are upping the surreal visuals with the cabin morphing into a cross and Grace appearing to look into a dollhouse of their own cabin (between this, Hereditary, and The Cleaning Lady dollhouses are getting pretty hot as of late). There’s also a bit of duct tape-bound snuff-style filming to balance everything out. It looks good.
The Lodge is due to chill theaters this fall.
