El refugio

I liked it, it was very typical though nothing we haven't seen before or something special I have seen films just like this a million times. But it had some tension in it and it was really enjoyable to spend my time I think it deserves to be watched at least once.

Alyson Richards' script tells the story of a young lesbian couple who want to reignite the passion in their relationship by going to an off grid retreat in a remote part of Ontario. Instead of finding a long weekend of lovemaking, the couple is captured by a group of homophobic survivalists who make money showing their bloody torture acts on the web.

As far as the horror goes, the plot is just a variation of 100 other movies where city dwellers fall into the hands of insane hillbillies. The couple is suffering from the same "need a way back to each other" dynamic they do in all these films. In this case, the hillbillies have a special kind of hate, but they aren't much different than the one in the other movies.

What's different is how angry the women are at the people who attacked them. They don't really want to be rescued by the police. They want to waste the monsters and leave the world a safer place. What's also different is how uniting against the common enemy reunites the women, and makes them a stronger couple.

This movie is about the needless political attacks on the LGBTQ community, and the legacy of pain and anger it leaves. The whole point of the movie is that the women are made stronger by uniting and vanquishing the threat.

As a horror movie, it's mediocre and made on a shoestring. The lighting is so dark it's hard to watch on a tv and the scares aren't very scary. The scares aren't really there to scare the viewer anyway.

As a political statement, the scares just make the viewer angry, which is what Richards wants. She is telling the world that there are lots of people who would cheer for the deaths of LGBTQ people. She wants the world to know "homophobia" is a nice word for "hate." She doesn't believe LGBTQ people are safe as long as homophobia exists, and she is right about it,

Well acted; the only one I knew was Aaron Ashmore. They all did a good job. Violent and visceral, over the top protagonists, and a proper ending. The theme is a little wokeish. My only gripe is we now seem to be in a PC age where the victims never let loose, giving pain to the baddies; they are often dispatched painlessly and quick ( I want revenge to be seen ) IE the remake of I Spit on your grave, and similar. It did what it said on the tin and kept my attention.

Renee (Tommie-Amber Pirie) and her girlfriend Valerie (Sarah Allen) are going on a retreat to a cabin in the woods. At the local store, Val gets hit on by James (Aaron Ashmore). There are suspicious happenings. Their car is gone. Their hosts are a couple of gay guys and they've been murdered by a masked man dressed in camo hunting gear.

This is a simple horror film. The gay targeting is somewhat interesting but the movie doesn't fully exploit it. I would have Renee try harder with the bear trap. The movie should spend more time with that scene to build up tension. It just struggles to build high tension. The actors are fine and there are some good ones here. The filmmaking is perfunctory. It's trying to be torture porn but It's not good enough. I don't think the director is a horror aficionado and it shows.

The plot of this 2021 Reteat was brilliant, the only thing that made me not score it above 5 was that the best part of 45mins was so Dark that u couldn't see anything properly! I know it's a horror but the fact there was no lighting at all ruined it for me! Otherwise I thought the plot was great!