Guess what words I have yet to say? “That Richard Armitage movie was really good.” The last time that I saw Alicia Silverstone was NOT Clueless, but in a small supporting role in which the character has no name in The Killing of a Sacred Deer, which was directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, but look at her still getting top billing. I am also familiar with The Lodge’s directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz from their first feature film, Goodnight Mommy, which I enjoyed, thought was beautiful and merciless, but also was predictable. So I went into The Lodge with my eyes open: low overall expectations, anticipated beautiful composition, but a weak story, and I was not disappointed. If it had not moved during its second week to the theater near me with the real butter popcorn, I probably would have waited to see it when it was available for home viewing.
The Lodge is about a fractured family because dad has found love with another woman at work. He comes up with the brilliant idea of having her spend a few days alone with the kids before Christmas when he will join them. The movie gives the viewers a few great reasons why dad’s idea sucks on a level so massive that people from space stations can see it. Even though on some level, everyone knows that this idea is spectacularly horrid, they do it, and shenanigans ensue. Is it supernatural or human? I watch a lot of movies, and the entire plot of the movie seemed fairly obvious before the trip to the titular location was even a gleam in their dad’s eye. Trigger warning: suicide.
I do have to ask myself one question. If I still had a good time in spite of all of the movies’ flaws, is it so bad that it is good again? Maybe. The Lodge felt like the horror equivalent of the Jurassic Park franchise. Human beings are stupid, and if you are not rooting for them, then The Lodge is a great movie that only pulled a punch during the final frame, which may be unforgiveable, but I also get that the filmmakers really are not looking to set the world on a fire with them still in it, especially in their first English speaking film. Still Ari Aster called, took all your accolades then made your mama jokes because you’re not hard, little Austrians. Aster gets us invested in his characters, makes all possible interpretations work, burns it all to the ground and leaves you shocked that he actually went there. Comparatively Fiala and Franz use two dimensional characters that they leave to the actors to flesh out, ultimately cannot pull off two different interpretations even though they desperately want to and flinch when the bill is due. Still I appreciate that they substantively went there, but you cannot show everything then punk out in the final frame.
Also a lot of The Lodge’s suspense depends on your assumptions about certain demographics, which the average moviegoer probably has, but I do not so I came to the whole enterprise expecting chicanery from certain characters. I do not completely buy the crucial development for the film’s denouement, but I went along with it. I could see people who survived trauma, particularly who were members of cults, angry at the film. Also experiencing trauma does not necessarily lead to mental disabilities that require treatment with medication though it can so I can see complaints related to that aspect of the story. Naturally the dog dies, but the minute that I saw the dog, I thought, “Yup, he is not going to survive,” so I was not even upset though I was hoping that Grady would survive. Again Aster has taken these things to the next level—he somehow shows sensitivity and empathy with his characters that are pushed too far to the edge with the underlying vibe that if it was not for the incessant pushing, everyone could be fine whereas Fiala and Franz start with suspicion and doom. There is nowhere to go but down.
I really enjoyed The Lodge’s brief found footage moment. I loved the interior composition (Hereditary wore it better) and felt as if the movie clips featured should not have been John Carpenter’s The Thing (love) and Jack Frost, but Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. I would have actually preferred if the movie was completely bonkers, and the mother’s early scenes of distress were more linked to the kids, and there was a moment when the viewer would think, “You caused this divorce.” I also would have loved it they did something similar with the other woman.
I have to knock The Lodge for randomly being super Catholic in the country home, but otherwise being completely secular on a daily basis. Also Catholics, is releasing balloons a thing that y’all do at funerals? Also please tell me that dad did not keep his wife’s final possession, and it was a different one. (It is the same one, isn’t it? Dumb ass!) How does a writer afford three homes?
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I genuinely wish that the supernatural angle was real even though I absolutely knew that it was not from the moment that dad’s office door opened mysteriously, but it is actually the kids. I want to have my cake and eat it too. If everyone is going to be the bad guy, then let the cult actually be right too, and when the kids break her, let it trigger something real. Usually video interference in films signal aliens, which I am not asking for, but with all the electric problems that persist after the kids confess, I would have liked more. It felt as if the filmmakers wanted to have a ghost story, evil kids and evil stepmother, but I really enjoy Aster because he somehow gives us everything without feeling indecisive or greedy.
The Lodge ultimately worked for me because the other woman shot dad in the head in front of the kids, and the kids are next. Play stupid games. Win stupid prizes. It is such a bleak ending that I love it. These bad ass kids went to Kinkos, accidentally (sure) killed a dog and drove a woman to homicide. I don’t care if they are dumb kids, the movie needed to go all the way there and have the brother witness his sister killed first. I could get into the deeper themes such as the trauma of loss on young kids and its effect after they get older, failure of fathers, violent mothers. The movie is a kind of gigantic loop of pain shamelessly borrowing from The Others, but the first duty of horror movie is to horrify, and the film started with a bang, but it should have ended with one too.
The Lodge, you could have been a contender, but you refuse to make the kids even worse than they already are. I think that it is possible to make them still sympathetic and horrible. Have them inadvertently drive their mom to suicide and imply that the mother was less desolate that her husband wanted a divorce, but that she would be left alone with those kids.
Side note: Elvis’ granddaughter plays the other woman.