In my latest hunt to find three horror movies to watch on streaming services, it started with, “Which movies look good?” but then in an instant became, “Ooh! These three movies all have covers in red, black, and white.” Yes, that is the method to my madness, so let’s see how my madness worked out for me.
HIDEOUT (2021)
I’m a fan of the subgenre where criminals on the run hide out in a location only to get what they deserve when it turns out something sinister awaits them. This film sets us up for that concept, but then it runs for almost two hours, bombarding us with dialogue and clashes between characters instead of an actual threat.
One character’s visions deliver the only horror moments for most of the movie. They’re actually such good horror sequences that they deserved to be real and not just illusions.
It begins with the gang of four involved in a shootout at a liquor store. One of them has been shot, so they go up to the first house in the middle of nowhere for help, where a nice older woman welcomes them in.
Before they even get in the house, one of the thieves “disappears”, never to be seen again, and the rest of the thieves mention him once and then pretty much just accept that he took off…on foot in the middle of nowhere?
Anyway, the woman who invites them in has her adult granddaughter staying with her, and this young woman is painted as having sinister motives for the entirety of the movie, despite never actually doing anything evil. There are also backstories for both grandmother and granddaughter referenced briefly yet never fully developed, so nothing really comes together.
After a whole lot of time filled with the one thief having visions, the granddaughter acting ominous, and tons of talk and infighting, eventually things come to a head. The number of characters is quickly whittled down to one thief, and she goes head-to-head with the granddaughter…before meeting the king of all evil in the house, which is a totally awesome entity that appears for approximately two minutes while trying to steal her soul.
WTF? How do you have an awesome entity stashed away for the whole movie when it could have been stealing souls left and right, not only to keep the horror coming, but also to shut these chattering characters up sooner?
THE HOPEWELL HAUNTING (2023)
This one definitely has an intriguing opener, even if there is a little overkill after a few moments. The camera explores a dark, derelict house as we hear bangs and screams. Eek!
Next, we meet a crabby old preacher in a southern town. A desperate couple asks him to bless the new house they just bought. He puts up a fight but eventually agrees to do it, and he soon becomes obsessed with what is lurking in the basement of the house…the same house from the beginning of the movie.
This isn’t an action-packed film, but there’s something moody and sinister about the way it is shot, including his first introduction to the dark house, which reminded me of the effective, lingering shots used in Absentia. I was totally on edge the first time he peered down into the basement, and I even jumped a few times.
The preacher is determined to find out what ails the house, so he moves into the empty place alone with nothing but candles lighting his way. We’re treated to way more encounters with the creepy entity than I was anticipating in this bare bones indie, but it does become repetitive, with that cool set up shot of the preacher staring down into the darkness of the basement being used again and again.
For the final act, the preacher finally goes down into the basement—which gave me Hell House LLC vibes—but there were some issues with this scene. First, why didn’t he wait until daylight to go down there? And second, why didn’t he go down there with someone else?
We also get a pretty basic and subdued conclusion instead of a major climactic moment, so this isn’t exactly the kind of haunted house film you go into if you’re hoping for an adrenaline rush.
CONJURING THE CULT (2024)
This one sets you up for a lot of trauma porn. Guy comes home and finds his daughter has committed suicide in the bathtub.
Next, he’s in group therapy. We learn his wife left him after the suicide. He blames himself for the suicide. One dude is wearing a Cult concert T-shirt (wink wink). There’s a gaggle of girls that look like they can’t decide if they want to cosplay as The Craft girls or the Hocus Pocus witches.
Those witchy girls offer to help him out. While he weighs that option, he is haunted incessantly by his daughter’s ghost, which is like a Grudge girl on two legs.
A huge chunk of the runtime is padded with endless nightmare/vision scares, and those simply start to lose their effectiveness after about 30 minutes, and it only gets worse when they become dream scares within dream scares. To mix it up a bit, the witches stop by and do some cleansing, plus the main guy starts seeing visions of cult members around his house.
The final act actually delivers some crazy stuff after something new finally happens an hour in. Personally, I guessed why the father is being haunted from the start, but it ensures some delicious revenge sequences when the dad makes the mistake of doing a ritual to bring his daughter back to him. Can you say Daughter Sematary?
This bitch is angry! She torments dad, she chases him with a knife, and eventually she pulls out the big guns…her demonic teeth. And it gets even nastier after that. I just wish the nightmare sequences didn’t carry most of the movie.
