Main cast: Luciane Buchanan (Jules Adams), Matt Whelan (Ben Adams), and Zara Nausbaum (Reia Adams)
Director: Scott Walker
The Adams family—I know, I know—are all about the critters. Jules is doing her final year at vet school, her husband and she run a pet store, and they have a precocious daughter named Reia. The only snag in their lives is that they are, well, not making enough money to keep things afloat.
Things are looking up when a lawyer shows up to talk to Ben about Ben’s recently deceased mother. The law firm discovers a hitherto misfiled deed belonging to Ben’s grandfather among the paperwork, so by right the land and the property on it are now Ben’s.
Ben is puzzled. Sure, his late mom was institutionalized during most of his childhood, so perhaps it was understandable that she might not have remembered to mention the deed to Ben. However, the lawyer also shows them old newspaper clippings of Ben’s father and sister dying while swimming at the place, the cutely named Hobbit’s Bay, but Ben distinctly recalls his mother saying that they died in a car accident.
Still, the family can’t resist driving all the way to Hobbit’s Bay to look at the property. For a moment, I assume they have found an actual hobbit’s home, because the whole thing is a cute little cottage overgrown with vines and what not. Yes, the place is awfully run out, it has no electricity, but hey, there is an ominous water tank that looks a lot like the one in the opening scene… one that has some mysterious creature, or creatures, that drag a poor old man into the depths of The Tank.
The Adams family love animals? Well, let’s see how well they take to the thing, or things, that lurk in their tank…
Yes, this movie combines the scary old house tropes with a monster, or monsters, in the wilds tropes, but the end result is solid.
While it doesn’t look expensive, the movie has just the right amount of lighting—or the lack of it, heh—and angle of shots to create an atmospheric, moody affair. It can be unsettling and even claustrophobic when it wants to be. Most impressively, it ends up being scary without relying on cheap gimmicks such as lazily done jump scares.
Even the monster is terrifying, because the people behind this movie are smart enough not to show me too much of it. Much of the terror of this monster stems from it being a chilling, unseen threat that lurks just out of one’s sight, ready to strike.
Meanwhile, the main characters, including—shockingly enough—that brat are likable types with just enough depths to get me to see them as people instead of props. Hence, they are easy to root for.
In other words, the folks behind this movie do seem like they know what they are doing!
The most obvious issue about this movie is that it isn’t subtle when it comes to slapping overused horror film tropes against my cheeks. Anyone that knows their way around the block in horror town will be very familiar with many of the sights and sounds here, right down to the climactic showdown. There is little here to make me stand up and say, “Wow! I never saw that coming!”
Still, the abundance of tropes here is not necessarily a bad thing, as the end result is still a tension-filled, chilling movie in spite of that. Seriously, I catch myself holding my breath when Ben starts exploring the flooded, narrow, and dark nooks and crannies inside the tank. Sure, that scene is expected, but it’s still an effective moment that gets to me even when it’s yet another trope trotted out faithfully.
Like I’ve said, the folks behind this one know their stuff, and that’s a good thing.
One thing, though. Matt Whelan is really cute, but come on, those jeans are way too loose on him. How sad that hot guy in tight, tight jeans is that one trope that this movie chooses to overlook!
