I wasn’t sure what to expect with this. I had seen some previews and it looked pretty intense. And also like I had no idea what was going on. So naturally I’m in. Spooky… Confusing… I’m in. Now let’s just hope it ends without clarity.

The movie opens with a mystery of two animals somehow merged. It’s just an opening stinger. A cold open if you will! Showing what we can expect without actually explaining things. 

Then we get to the movie proper. Where we have Tim and Millie enjoying a going away party. The couple has had a very strained relationship and they are moving to a small town countryside home to try and get a fresh start. To rekindle the relationship that once flourished between them. 

The guy in the relationship is the problem. 100%. He is clearly checked out. Their new start is pretty quickly shown to be just as strained as it was before the move. The two go out on a hike that rapidly turns out just as good as their relationship. After Tim decides to stray from the easy trail, a storm rolls in and they become lost. It goes from bad to worse when Tim steps on a patch of ground that gives way beneath him. He latches on to a rope or something to keep from falling down the hole, but when Millie tries to pull him out of the hole she gets yanked in with him as he falls. A fitting analogy for their relationship, she tries and he brings it crashing down. Literally this time as the two of them fall into the suddenly revealed cavern. A moment that shows how badly things are between them comes as the two of them lie in a heap after falling. She asks him how he is and part of his response is where is my phone because it has my music demos on it. To which she gets up and says “I’m fine by the way.”

They spend the night there with Tim testing and finding the small pool of water to be drinkable. When they wake up the spot where their legs were touching each other is sorta glued together. They separate and then cobble together some furniture to climb out. Which brings me to a big problem with the story. That stuff was there with them all night. Why did they wait until the morning to try and stack it to get out? I would have done that right away. They were in a cavern of some sort, so it wasn’t like day made it easier really. They had one working cell phone with a flashlight. The exit they created could have been done within the first hour of them falling.

But they get out. And a tragic moment has brought them together a bit. Expect things are still just as bad, and rapidly return to that state. But it gets worse because now there is a weirdness with Tim. When Millie leaves, he falls into a catatonic state and appears to be trying to move to her. This is the first moment where we see the magnetic pull between them. This is a fascinating thing, but also a highly inconsistent thing in the story. It happens when the story needs it to. Why doesn’t it happen always? 

I really want to get more in the weeds with this, but I also want to leave enough for you to watch it play out. And that makes reviewing it tough. There is a series of moments that are dream segments of Tim. And dream segments are something I am having more trouble with of late. They are a double edged sword. The storyteller gets to play out a moment that gets weird or bad or deadly…but then Tim sits up in bed. The problem with dream segments is that the storyteller is deceiving us. Showing us something and then saying “Haha, that wasn’t real!”

I’m giving this movie a 7 star rating because I really like it. But there are things I really had issue with. And I want to rewatch it and see how I feel about those things. That may be something that doesn’t happen for awhile though. Too much other stuff in life I need to work on!