A group of friends think they find an easy score at an empty house with a safe full of cash. But when the owners, an elderly couple, come home early, the tables are suddenly turned.
“Game of Thrones” star Maisie Williams headlines this low-budget horror-thriller but even her presence is not enough to save it from evolving into a characterless and uninspiring narrative, in spite of a well-rounded supporting cast, including the seventh “Doctor Who,” Sylvester McCoy and English character actor, Rita Tushingham. All the elements are there for the makings of a great thriller but sadly, they never come to fruition and we are left with an ill-conceived, underdeveloped tale.
When Nathan (Ian Kenny) and his two mates, Terry (Andrew Ellis) and Gaz (Jake Curran), decide to rob the house of an elderly couple, they think they have found the perfect score: a large mansion in the middle of nowhere with a huge safe in the basement. They stake out the house one afternoon and when the elderly couple leaves for the day, they break in and make their way to the basement and locate the safe. When it proves impenetrable, they decide to wait for the couple to arrive home with the intent of scaring them into giving them the combination. While waiting in the house, Nathan’s girlfriend Mary (Maisie Williams) turns up, informing him that she needs the car to get to work but he asks her to wait just a little longer. Shortly thereafter, the elderly couple arrives home, and Nathan and his friends take them to the basement and tie them up. While the men try to scare and intimidate the couple, they quickly realize their plan is not working. When Gaz threatens to kill the old lady, Nathan gets into a physical altercation with him, unwilling to go that far, and at this point, the elderly couple breaks free and turns the tables on the gang. With the house now in lockdown, the friends must try to formulate a plan so they can escape with their lives!
The premise is intriguing but it is in its execution where it fails. The elderly couple proves to be more resourceful than the youths, outmaneuvering and outsmarting them at every turn, much to their surprise and annoyance but even when it comes to physical traits, the retired couple always manages to get the upper hand, and this aspect I found to be too unbelievable. The film hints at an element that is quickly glossed over, that the couple is responsible for a myriad of missing youths from the local village but once again, this aspect is implausible, simply because the elderly couple are fragile, while the wife is suffering from the onset of dementia, causing her to slip in and out of her mental state. If the couple had been introduced as middle-aged, this facet would have been more credible but the film doesn’t even give an explanation as to why they have been abducting and killing the local youths. The cast performs admirably but unfortunately, it all amounts to nothing when the end credits begin to roll as it feels like their performances were in vain for what can only be called a bizarre and convoluted finale.
Available on Blu-ray and DVD October 20th
