'Trespassers': Film review. Two young couples staying at a remote vacation house are terrorized by home invaders in Orson Oblowitz's horror thriller
Staying at an isolated vacation home in the desert may be a perfectly reasonable idea in real life, but in movies it tends to lead to nothing but trouble. Orson Oblowitz'sthe latest horror film to illustrate this principle, doesn't add anything particularly original to the home invasion genre. But it does provide some cheap thrills along the way, and Fairuza Balk fans will relish her brief appearance as the mysterious figure who sets the violent plot mechanics in motion.
Since a prologue has shown the home's owners being brutally murdered by a trio of masked, machete-wielding Latinos, the audience, if not the main characters, knows that the weekend is not destined to go well. Unfortunately, it takes a while for that to happen, with the two couples' domestic issues, including the revelation of an illicit affair, occupying roughly the first half-hour of screen time.
The overall tedium is relieved by the appearance of a character listed in the credits only as "The Visitor" , who knocks on the door late at night and explains that her car broke down and she needs to use the phone. But the perkily chatty stranger seems curiously reluctant to leave the premises and makes several comments indicating that she's not the neighbor she claims to be.
The ensuing plot mechanics in Corey Deshon's formulaic screenplay, including the ill-timed arrival of two police officers responding to Sarah's 911 call, are never as clever as they aspire to be. The more the violence quotient ratchets up, the less interesting things get, although the film is admirably unafraid of killing off central characters earlier than you would expect.
Oblowitz displays estimable technical polish in his orchestration of the gruesome mayhem, and the film at least looks terrific, thanks to Noah Rosenthal's expert cinematography and the sleekly modernist setting in which most of the action takes place. The performances, too, are better than they need to be, with Balk entertainingly making the most of her brief screen time and Trimbur subtly touching as the emotionally fragile Sarah.
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