nOh, one really saw the savage coming, and the 2022 horror film about the Airbnb reservation is very wrong. That's part of the plan, it's a teasing trailer that tells only a small part of the story, and a shaky title promises something greater than what we first saw, which is probably why I found the reaction to be a little alienated. It was filled with ecstatic praise at the time of release, with first-time writer director Zach Cregger set in comedy, who is immediately declared as the new genre king. To me, this is the trick than treat, it's a hoarse reel that shows Craig is a filmmaker with quite a skill, but also a smug, emitting a face on an irritable script.
The follow-up to Craig, bigger, bolder and more thankfully, was inevitable turn for better weapons and buzz, when his spec script sparked an auction in town months after the Barbarians performed well. Industry rumors show Jordan Peele is so determined to enact the project that he splits his way with management when his company loses to a new product line. It's been more than two years since then – Cregger compared the project to Magnolia, with stars like Julia Garner and Josh Brolin signing a full-scale attack on marketing campaigns – so, for the second appearance, it's almost impossible to see this guy come. Thanks to the Warner Bros. marketing team, because something still hinders, the shocking trailer highlights enough standard WTF images without really revealing the amazing premise.
17 children from the same class disappeared. They all got up at 2.17am and ran into the darkness. The police were confused and the parents were angry and targeted Ms. Grady (Julia Garner). She is one of many alternate perspectives, including parents (Josh Brolin), a cop (Alden Ellenrech), a young criminal (Austin Abrams) and a child who has not escaped (Carry Christopher), slowly building photos of what happened that night.
It's an attractive setting, and sits between Stephen King and Brother Grimm, Cregger's careful slow manufacturing has kept us in Thrall for the most part, eager to see how these puzzles fit. The POV transfer allows his excellent cast to get their moments, from Garner's nervous, vodka haters to Ehrenreich's agile Ehrenreich, who, while Cregger's role is rather thin, is all less, less, less, less thoughtful short storytellers, and more bodies have a place in the video game. They serve a mysterious plot of magnetic dripping, and the plot is so shocking that it took us a while to notice how empty it was. On the one hand, unlike many of his genre counterparts, Craig is not interested in traumatic horror, and those looking to find it may still find a more in-depth allegorical reading of weapons (perhaps ridiculously the few who might be Barbarian claiming Barbarian is a powerful #MeToo statement), but it is an impossible engine, similar to Schops' engine, similar to Schlocky, and like you. But it's also crucial that something is missing, which is a surprise or exquisite extra element.
It reminds me of Denis Villeneuve's missing child thriller prisoner, and while that's not that forgiving, it's equally handsome, high-end packaging for incredibly stupid and straightforward stuff. From different perspectives, the tricky structure and repetition of the scenes will make one think there is a maze plot to be discovered, but the weapons are more clumsy than seemingly stupid, relying on amazingly incompetent police and intentionally ignorant citizens. Still a very confident and seductive immersive director, Craig (Cregger) builds some shocking shocks and moments in the seat. His clever emotional excitement at the moment makes us catch us (the movie is an interesting, responsive experience), and he draws a shockingly terrifying and nightmarishly weird show from a late actor whose name would be a shocking show, but his storytelling collapses even before the lights even appear. The ending may raise violence to an attractive level, but does not cut down any confusion of meaning as deeply as possible.
Craig may have used his skills more effectively than he did in the Barbarian to expand and improve his arsenal, but there is still something missing. Something sharper.