Film Review – The Lodge

In 2015, writer/directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala made a wonderfully unsettling debut with their first feature-length effort, “Goodnight Mommy.” It was spare work, but unnerving, creating an enjoyable nightmare that suffered some pacing issues, but managed to sink its talons into the audience. “The Lodge” is their long-overdue follow-up, which returns the duo to the realm of slow-burn horror, which is all the rage these days, embarking on a mission of psychological distortion with their endeavor, which examines the stains of trauma as a family spends the Christmas holiday in a remote dwelling. Much like “Goodnight Mommy,” “The Lodge” is in no hurry to get anywhere, and while such persistent delay ultimately does damage to the movie’s overall effectiveness as a chiller, it remains clear that Franz and Fiala are gifted genre craftspeople, looking to make ticket-buyers feel the pressure of doomsday without fully explaining what’s coming for them. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com