Just caught this on Hulu, and it’s a shame that it flubbed the ending, because it wasn’t doing a bad job of keeping my interest with a story that almost entirely takes place in a bathroom.
It’s the last few moments of the movie that wrecks it for me. The mother digging thru the wall (to escape) supremely highlights the family’s complete lack of self-preservation to not have attempted that much sooner - Like, immediately after the son had gotten bit by a rattlesnake?
Up until that point, there was the impression that the bathroom acted like an impenetrable safe room of sorts; with a wood door that can’t be penetrated, and cement walls several feet thick. It didn’t completely sell me on why the family didn’t attempt to dig thru the wall anyway, but I held a suspension of disbelief enough to perhaps assume that the walls were thick enough to have taken too long to attempt it with the resources at hand.
When the mom does it at the end with a piece of glass, only to discover that the wall was only a couple of bricks deep, it simply becomes agitating that the family couldn’t have escaped the bathroom within a day after they were trapped in there.
What’s outside the bathroom is a curiosity throughout the entire movie, and it’s never revealed….because a family would rather die trapped in the bathroom than attempt to dig thru a 2-brick deep wall?
I’m sure it was written like this, because it was a very small budget (with very few location options), but it would have played much better if the outside threats were much more menacing, and acted on infiltrating the bathroom as soon as the storm ended…effectively (and immediately) discouraging the family from wanting to escape the bathroom. As if to say, whatever is outside the bathroom equals certain death, and trying to survive in the bathroom is a preferable choice.
Escaping the bathroom early, discovering what’s out there, and barricading themselves in would have worked better.
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ColumboKate (5678)
2 months ago
Agreed with all of that.
It was like one of the short stories in a Stephen King collection. A complete suspension of reality. It takes ambiguity to a whole other level. Absolutely nothing is explained.
Do you think they were dead all along? Or that she really was a Witch with a successful spell? And if the latter, why did the world end if the spell was aimed at Joe?
Also, credit to the young actors here. The little boy was really good and the daughter was too.
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DavidM (875)
2 months ago
It was like two different scripts (the family locked in the bathroom and the lesbian Witch story) not very well mixed. In fact when the protagonist talks about the spell of her girlfriend you see the actors are trying their BEST not to laugh.
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DoctorThirteen (13970)
2 months ago
But... but... it had a gay in it, so it must be good!
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LennyNero (498)
2 months ago
The movie wasn’t good. “Gay” had zero to do with it. It wasn’t a selling point either. It was simply a concept that didn’t hit its landing.
IMO, it was really close to being very good, but it screwed up its details/motivations. IMO, the script wrote the parents to be completely useless in an emergency situation. Their sexual preference doesn’t actually play a part in this story. The story does simply revolve around a family trying to survive a trapped situation.
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LennyNero (498)
2 months ago
IMO, the story/concept was really close to selling something awesome. It just got lazy with the details, and ultimately released something forgettable.
This story needed a stronger family unit, and a more menacing outside threat. Personally, I hated the lack of self-preservation that the family had, and that made it more difficult for me to root for them as an audience.
Loved the concept, but disagreed with the execution.
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