The Lodgers

A beautiful ghost story about two siblings living in a decaying house around 1920. It's reminiscent of The House of Usher and if you like classic ghost stories like The Woman in Black (less cheesy jump scares) and Crimson Peak (also full of beautiful visuals, but less color and more texture based) then this is for you!

Gothic apparently equals dull in the minds of the filmmakers who created this yawner.

Blah blah blah Ireland. Blah blah blah Ghosts Blah blah blah Something happens. Unfortunately for the viewer that something is 85 minutes after you stopped caring. Could have been a lot better if it had been a lot faster paced and scarier. It isn't and it wasn't.

On the surface, The Lodgers is a gorgeous gothic tale reminiscent of Edgar Allen Poe or classic Hammer Horror Production. Between the haunting estate or its eerily enchanting woods, you'll want to love the macabre romance of it all. The first half of the film will reel you along, making you wonder: "What potentially Lovecraftian terror dwells under the house? Who haunts this family? What the hell is going on?"

Unfortunately, as The Lodgers very tediously reveals BITS of information, you feel the spell lifting. Through the pseudo-intellectual rambling of its lead character ("Love! Love can be worse than hate!") and frustratingly vague expositions, you'll realize that the world above is so much more interesting than the mysterious lake and basement below.

In its final minutes, The Lodgers gives its viewers a passionless conclusion to a very underdeveloped mystery. This movie had SO much potential, and it's really tragic this genre of horror has had so little traffic in the past few decades. That said, it's still a beautiful looking tale worth the watch for fans of gothic horror and the Victorian aesthetic. Don't expect much in terms of storytelling, however.

An interesting concept that suffers from poor writing. Weird things happen without rhyme or reason and the audience is never given an explanation for anything. Minor conflicts in the movie happen for the sake of taking up time to bring it to an hour and a half and no resolutions are ever provided The acting isn't horrible, I guess.

Has an interesting premise but fails to develop it further thus ultimately falling short of being engaging & entertaining. Overall it was a bit dull