The Lodge (2019) ***

Directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz have a thing for messed-up children, apparently. As with their feature debut, Goodnight Mommy (2014) (my review here), the children central to their follow-up The Lodge (2019) do awful things to an adult female (in GM it was their mother, here it's their father's girlfriend/potential stepmother). And boy, are there consequences.

The Lodge is one downbeat film that wallows a bit too heavily in its misery for my tastes but there is plenty to appreciate. Comparisons to Hereditary (2018) (my review here)—another bummerfest focused around a family torn apart by tragedy with religion playing a central role—are hard to avoid, though mostly coincidental I think. There is indeed a similar pacing and cinematographic choices at play here but the dynamic is different.

The performances are strong across the board and the snowy setting provides a sinister backdrop of isolation. There's a great deal of logic-stretching at play but The Lodge still makes for a tense slow burn horror film, devoid of jump scares and relentless in its execution. As with their first film, I'm not in love with this one but I'm still interested in what they'll do next.