Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on basement television.
There are a number of topics that split the average horror movie fans. Gore, for instance, is loved by some and shunned by others who look for a more cerebral horror (and of course there are those who accept it when it’s needed). Another is the concept of the slow burn film. Horror that is going for the quick thrill doesn’t do a lot of slow burn. It’s about showing the audience a terrible spectacle. The slow burn is often about the idea of creating something much deeper than mere shock or disgust. The slow burn is about the build of terror and, hopefully, a payoff of something truly terrifying, a lasting scare that seeps into the audience’s bones. That’s definitely the goal with The Lodge.
The Lodge very much plays with an idea I heard Wes Craven bring up in an interview about Scream. According to Craven, if you give the audience a good scare in the first 15 minutes, you don’t really have to scare them again until the end. The film opens with our introduction to Richard Hall (Richard Armitage) and his two children, Aiden (Jaeden Martell) and Mia (Lia McHugh). The kids are going through the “separated parents trade-off” and Richard tells his estranged wife Laura (Alicia Silverstone) that he wants to finalize the divorce because he is going to marry Grace (Riley Keough), someone he met while researching his latest book. Laura takes that news poorly; she goes home and shoots herself through the mouth.
