A young couple decides to spend a weekend in a secluded lodge.  They have lots of sex.  Smoke weed and drink.  There’s a creepy caretaker.  Sound familiar?  It is.  The Lodge brings absolutely nothing new into the mix.

Michael take his girlfriend, Julia, on a romantic getaway to a secluded lodge with the intentions of proposing.  Upon their arrival, strange things begin to happen.  The doors are left unlocked.  The kitchen has been recently used and not cleaned up.  And then they meet the caretaker of the lodge, Henry, who’s covered in blood. He tells the love birds that he’s just carving up a deer in the garage and gives a few sinister looks.

While it’s competently directed, and the actual Lodge itself does add a touch of atmosphere to the proceedings, the film fails on most all levels.  There is absolutely no sense of pace.  The movie has a run time of 1 hour and 21 minutes and the first 10 minutes of the film are the opening credits.  In an attempt to add some atmosphere in between credits, the audience is bombarded by ‘eerie’ images of nature.  We’re introduced to the main characters and suffer through nearly an hour of dialogue and non-events before the action of the film sets in.  By this time, the audience has long since checked out.

The film isn’t helped by two bland and unappealing lead actors.  Neither stand out enough in their roles, although they are not helped by lack of clear character in the script.

There is an attempt at a ‘twist’ ending but it comes so late in the show that its only real purpose seems to be to leave room for a sequel.

A friend that I viewed the film with summed it up in one word: uneventful.  And I’ll have to agree with her.

Tags | Direct to DVD, low budget, Slasher, torture