When I sat down to watch this 2021 thriller/horror movie titled "The Retreat" from writer Alyson Richards and director Pat Mills, I must admit that my expectations weren't all that high, as the movie had managed to acquire a rating of 3.6 stars here on IMDb.
But still, it being a movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I managed to find the time to watch it.
And sure, "The Retreat" was a watchable movie, albeit a very mundane and generic one at that, especially for a movie such as this, set in the trapped in the wilderness and stalked by killers genre. If there is such a thing.
The storyline was pretty straight forward, but it suffered heavily from being rather generic and predictable. Sure, it was watchable and entertaining enough, but the storyline does leave lots to be wanted. The movie had potential to be much more than what director Pat Mills managed to make it into.
The acting in the movie was adequate. Now, a movie such as "The Retreat" is not the type of movie heavily reliant on Shakespearian performances, so don't consider yourself in for some mind-blowing and amazing acting performances here. Sure, I will say that the acting was okay for the movie, but that was about it.
The overall feel to the movie was just bland. Writer Alyson Richards didn't bring anything new to the genre, and just played it safe by following a strict 'how-to-make-a-trapped-in-the-wilderness-stalked-by-killers' blueprint. So everything you see in "The Retreat" is something that has been done and seen countless times before in other movies of the same type, and more often done better than what was done here in "The Retreat".
The movie was just rather devoid of ghastly things to keep the motivation going. I mean, there just was limited amounts of gore and violence in the movie, something which could have helped promote the overall enjoyment of "The Retreat" somewhat.
It felt a little bit too scripted and too much of an easy ride for the two main characters in the movie as they went through what was supposed to be a harrowing ordeal of being trapped in the wilderness and stalked by killers. They just seemed to stroll through the events a bit too easily. And that made for a rather mundane movie experience, because it was lacking that element of terror, dread, hardship and actually being at risk.
While I managed to sit through the entire movie, I must say that "The Retreat" was actually better than I had anticipated. But don't get me wrong here, because I am not saying that "The Retreat" was an outstanding movie experience. Hardly so. Nay, "The Retreat" was watchable, yes, but it was just too bland and generic actually.
My rating of "The Retreat" lands on a very mediocre five out of ten stars.
