Lodge Fever

Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s indie psychological chiller, ‘The Lodge,’ is one of those slow-burning, or rather I should say slow-freezing character-driven thrillers that makes great water cooler conversation the morning after.  Low budget indie films like this usually don’t get to see the light of day beyond direct-to-DVD and streaming services but I’m glad that, after a year since it debuted at Sundance in 2019, I finally got a chance to see it at my local 20-screen megaplex.

 

‘The Lodge’ is the tale of two siblings, a boy and a girl who, like so many other American children, suffered through the tragedy of parental divorce.  To compound this tragedy, the mother (played by “Clueless” Alicia Silverstone – where have she been?) didn’t handle it well (understatement of the century) and ate a bullet, which understandably if not justifiably caused the children to direct their resentment towards the perceived cause, the “other woman,” in this case a cult survivor named Grace played by Riley Keough, aka the grand-daughter of Elvis.  So when the kids were forced to spend a Xmas holiday at a cozy but remote lodge on the frozen tundra of Massachusetts to “get to know their new mom” better and the dad was unexpectedly called away by work, just what possibly could go wrong?

 

Riveting, engrossing and deeply suspenseful, ‘The Lodge’ relies on atmosphere and a creeping sense of unease to build towards its inevitable climax.  A throwback and homage to Dario Argento and the Italian "Giallo" genre of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, ‘The Lodge’ will no doubt “lodge” (pun intended) itself uncomfortably in the dark recesses of your mind and under your skin long after the final credits have rolled.

 

Grade: A