Director: Matt Betinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Cast: Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O’Brien, Elyse Levesque
Have I Seen It Before: Never. Feels like it has been hovering on the perimeter of the Beyond the Cabin in the Woods schedule for years, but for some reason we’re only just now coming around to it.
Did I Like It: Let’s get the unqualified great stuff out of the way first. The film is equal parts funny and gory, and Samara Weaving is an engaging presence who, along with her turn in Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) is turning out to be an excellent screen actress. My only fear for her is that her career will be plentiful, but may be limited by the fact that people will jump at the chance to cast her simply because Margot Robbie passed. It’s a gift to the movies that there are two of them around, but unfortunately, Robbie became the bigger star first.
Now that we have all of that out of the way, let’s talk a little bit about the ending. As much as I was enjoying the film as it proceeded, when it seemed like the movie was heading towards a conclusion that there is nothing supernatural going on, Le Bail (portrayed in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment by the film’s producer, James Vanderbilt) and the surviving members of the cast have to leave the house with only the pedestrian comeuppances of the justice system waiting for them.
That ending would have been deeply funny, and kind of preclude any sort of real attempt at a sequel. It might have become one of my favorite movies with that sort of managed anti-climax. The ending we do have is fine, and likely more in line with the gore-fest aesthetic to which the preceding film commits, but a boy can dream, can’t he?