RomanJamesHoffman

A mixed-race gay couple (and the one guy's daughter from a previous relationship) make the move as an alternative family unit to a small town where things are, and always have been, button down and traditional. At first, the couple feel excited that their plan to live a more down-to-earth life away from city stresses...but soon one of the guys begins to suspect that the community is hiding a sinister secret.

The set up is very familiar to horror fans and yet the first act of the movie plays out quite well. It's shot well, has convincing performances from the leads, and - with the help of a good sound engineer - effortlessly builds up the creep factor.

These plus points remain throughout the movie; however, the second act of the film drags and the third act seems to fall asleep at the wheel and veer dramatically from paranormal horror to Rosemary's Baby-esque paranoia, back again, then into some ham-fisted social commentary on both mental illness, racism, and homophobia before finally crashing headlong into the lovechild of Hereditary and Dracula.

As a result the ending feels unsatisfactory as a lot of the reveals feel tacked-on and limp. By the time it ended I felt like the writers tried to cover up a weak script by distracting the audience with some horror cliches and - if that didn't work - some clunky "message" that "racism is bad" and/or "homophobia is bad" and/or "mental illness is a shame".

Which is sad because if the film had had the courage of it's convictions a bit more I think it could have delivered way more effectively on what it set up in the first third. All in all, an okay-ish watch but that's being a bit on the generous side.

Charlotte, a brilliant but troubled alumni of a prestigious music academy, travels to China to meet her former mentor, Anton. While there she meets her successor, the equally brilliant but much more successful Lizzie. At first, their meeting is awkward but the ice soon melts and the two develop a passionate friendship exploring the sights and smells of Shanghai. However, when Lizzie appears to pick-up a virus that's going around Charlotte's true intentions become all too clear. Or do they?

Now then: be warned, this movie is not afraid to be graphic. However, for me, this is always a strength in a movie so long as it doesn't feel overdone. And here, it doesn't. Also be warned, the movie is not what you think it is. And then it not what you think it is AGAIN. Personally, I feel it's admirable that the writers have tried to add a twist (or three) into what would otherwise be a fairly standard jealousy/revenge flick. It seems many people on here feel that this made the film unintentionally ludicrous. And while I don't think the movie is anywhere near as innovative as it seems to think it is, I nevertheless disagree with those in the former camp. It's a good-looking movie, with some decent acting and, while the "twist(s)" might be a bit gimmicky for some, it did enough to maintain my interest all the way through.

All in all an entertaining, but forgettable, watch.

...but the ending of this movie, wow, I was so annoyed.

Why? Well, the movie starts out fine - giving us a flash of the near future where something unspecifically bad has happened we are then thrown back to 1988, 1997, and 2006 in sequence following the growing obsession of Thomas Lockhart, a police-officer investigating an apparent serial killer. The deaths are apparently unrelated and particularly gruesome which effectively draws us into the case. Then as the movie begins to unravel the various aspects of the killings which defy logic, the movie shifts from a hard-boiled detective film and ventures into Sci-Fi territory and Lockhart has to sacrifice everything in his life in order to put the pieces together.

Up to this point the movie is a completely serviceable mix of Sci-Fi and detective story, albeit broadcasting most of its "twists" from the outset. Until, that is, the very end of the movie where there is a personal twist which attempts to add pathos to what we've seen but which just comes across as hokey and manipulative. AND then - oh my - the (lol) political message of the movie which flat-out states that patriotism is the same as racism and that they all need to be killed cuz reasons.

As a result, most of the reviews here fall into one of two camps - people that are put off by this. And those that say it's okay. I was put off by it because, basically, at the end I realised I'd spent two hours watching a flat-out piece of Leftist propaganda of the vilest kind. But even putting my own opinions aside, surely, in the divided political times we are currently in a movie which says "it's morally right to kill people on the other side of the political spectrum" is at best woefully misguided and at worst dangerously divisive.

And the worst part about it all? It added NOTHING to the movie. In trying to be edgy and woke, it just comes off as a superficial end to the movie which ruins what came before.