The Lodge Review (3/4/2020)

The Lodge is the debut English feature from Austria writer-directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, of Goodnight Mommy renown. Inevitably it will be compared to that film, but since I have yet to see it, I am unable to. I am, however, able to review it on its own terms as a horror film, and in that sense it’s a thoroughly solid experience – though not a truly great one.

Its premise is a promising one – a family torn apart when the father leaves his wife for another woman, driving the former woman to suicide. Their children, bitter and grieving, blame their father’s lover, whom he is going to marry. She decides to try and spend a week with them in their family’s lodge in the wilderness to try and clear the air and get to know them, but tensions escalate when they become snowed in, and strange and unexplainable occurrences begin to plague them. It combines the claustrophobic tension of The Shining with the utterly demented family drama of Hereditary – it’s that kind of art horror movie that directors like Ari Aster and Robert Eggers have been popularizing lately. The cinematography and presentation fit this mold perfectly, with slow, long takes focusing on building a scene of place and atmosphere. The direction and camerawork are easily the highlight of the film, with Franz and Fiala in full control of their craft, with a sense of bleak inevitability and dread pervading every frame.

The film’s emotional core is held together by an excellent performance from Riley Keough as a woman with a troubled past just trying to move on and do right by those in her life. She is a victim constantly tormented by her inner demons, and now a very real external one in the form of her new family and their constantly accusatory glances. The complexity of the situation comes out in her performance as she slowly unravels, and it really helps to hold the experience together. Supporting performances from child actors Jaeden Martell and Lia McHugh are fairly good as well, and definitely above average for a child performance.

The plot takes a lot of twists and turns, some of which are fairly predictable, but most of which are interesting. There are some really intense, ponderous themes in the film, and despite feeling cliché at times there are some very well directed nightmare sequences that set the stage for a film in which the true reality of the situation can’t really be grasped. It’s an intense ride that’s not a comfortable experience, and while it’s never overtly violent or gory, it can still be very hard to watch due to the nature of what its characters are doing to each other.

The Lodge is a thoroughly solid entry in the so-called “elevated horror” movement, though its main problem is that it just doesn’t really hold up to much scrutiny, either in terms of the physical mechanisms of the plot or the thematic through lines. There are some fascinating themes about the deterioration of a family unit, suicide and guilt, mental illness, gaslighting and childhood trauma, religion, cult brainwashing and purgatory. The Lodge plays with these themes in interesting ways, but never really has much to say about them. Its ending is suitably chilling, but it also hinges on a rather absurd plot twist. Even the direction falls short here, not quite coaxing layered enough performances from its actors to make the situation all that believable. Finally, it devolves into a problematic portrayal of a dangerously psychotic woman that, while not as bad as it could be due to the sheer amount of abuse and gaslighting that takes most of the blame for her actions off of her, is still inadvertently demonizing the mentally ill in a manner that too many horror movies fall prey to.

Overall, The Lodge is a solid art horror film in the vein of Ari Aster’s recent work that’s sure to give fans of the subgenre a decent fix while waiting for the next big thing. It’s full of impeccable atmosphere and an unrelenting sense of personal and religious dread, and its performances carry enough emotional weight to leave the viewer rattled. It’s a suitably chilling film, but underwhelming thematic exploration and a problematic finale render it a little too hollow to be a proper gem. Still, if you like horror films, it’s a nightmare worth having – just don’t expect to be blown away.