- Directed by: Damian McCarthy
- Written by: Damian McCarthy
- Stars: Adam Scott, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 47 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVCIK_MPyhc
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
An American writer visits Ireland to scatter his parents’ ashes and do some writing. But there might be ghosts and witchery afoot, and his trip gets more complicated than he expected. Adam Scott does a good job in a dramatic role, and the whole thing is well put together. The script is excellent, and we both thought it was very entertaining.
Spoilery Synopsis
A man in armor wanders across the desert and consults a map. He soon runs out of water but sees a big circle in the sand.
We cut back to a man writing a story about the conquistador in the desert. “They were doomed,” says the story. The writer, Ohm Bauman, gets distracted by someone in his house. A ghost? He considers shooting himself, but decides to go to Ireland instead (is that better?). Credits roll.
Ohm soon arrives at the remote hotel in the woods. A man inside tells the story of a witch to two terrified children. Ohm arrives, and he’s already pretty judgmental of the locals. The old man is the owner of the hotel, and Ohm makes an impression on everyone.
Ohm has a photo of his mother standing next to a big redwood tree, and he tracks down the tree. He pours out his parents’ ashes on the tree. An old man, Jerry, watches and offers him a drink of moonshine. He’s also got some psilocybin-laced milk. They talk about the local goats, which have a tendency to climb on cars and mess up the paint.
Fiona, one of the staff, talks about the honeymoon suite, which is supposed to be haunted. The owner, old man Cobb, has locked a witch inside, or so they say. He tells Fiona about his mother, who was shot in the face by someone too young to prosecute. Alby, the bellboy, also believes the story. Ohm says it’s all “Hokum” and gets snarky with the man. Not long after, Fiona finds Ohm hanging from the ceiling, dead.
Ohm wakes up in an elevator, in black-and-white land. He later wakes up in the hospital, after having a vision of his dead mother. When he recovers, he goes back to the hotel, which is about to close for the season. He learns that Fiona has gone missing since his incident– but she’s not the first. Old Jerry, the man with the milk, has also gone missing under suspicious circumstances. Ohm wonders if she might have gotten into the Honeymoon Suite.
On the way out of town, Ohm runs into Jerry in the woods. Jerry admits he killed his sick wife, but he had nothing to do with Fiona’s disappearance. He’s seen her ghost, and he has the key to the suite. The plan is for Jerry to go back after the hotel is closed and empty, but now he invites Ohm to go with him.
The two soon arrive at the hotel, now closed for the season, and go inside. Turns out, Fergal, the manager, is still there and he chokes out Jerry and ties him up. Fergal takes Jerry and drives away.
Ohm, on the other hand, hears the bell ringing for the honeymoon suite. It’s been neglected for a long time. He goes to sleep and dreams about how he shot his own mother. Mal comes in and wakes him up. Mal insists that there’s nothing in the creepy basement elevator shaft. When Ohm finds what’s left of Fiona, Mal locks him inside the suite.
We get a flashback to Halloween night and what actually happened to Fiona. Mal drugged her and took her to the honeymoon suite, where he put her in the dumb waiter and left her. She left a recording explaining that she was pregnant by Mal, who wasn’t happy.
Elsewhere, Jerry escapes from Fergal and jumps out of the van.
After trying to get out of the suite, Ohm notices that Fiona’s body is gone. He then watches the best children’s TV show ever. He then figures out how to take the dumb waiter down to the basement. After a quick look around, he finds that he’s trapped down there as well. He sees someone else down there just as the dumb waiter returns him to the suite.
The witch follows him right upstairs, and, as she closes in, he remembers what he’s been told about chalk circles and uses it.
In the morning, Mal returns and finds Jerry trying to get into the honeymoon suite. Mal explains how he drove Ohm to the airport last night. Ohm rings the bell, and Jerry knows he’s there. Jerry heads up to the honeymoon suite to free Ohm while Mal sets up a fire to start before heading to the honeymoon suite himself with his crossbow. He kills Jerry and intends to lock Ohm in again, but also gets locked in himself.
Ohm goes back down to the basement, taking the key with him. Mak gets ready to follow him. The witch makes another appearance, but this time, Ohm knows how to protect himself and starts to draw a chalk circle, but the witch is right behind him and grabs him before he can complete it. Mal comes down and finds the key among the witch’s souvenirs, and she gets him too. Ohm talks to the ghost of his mother and makes peace with her. Ohm gets out; Mal does not.
Ohm goes down to the main floor in the elevator and finds the whole place ablaze. He passes out, but Fergal comes in and finds him.
Some time later, Ohm works on his book in the hospital when Alby comes for a visit. He explains that they found Fiona and Jerry’s bodies, but not Mal’s. Alby admits he spikes Ohm’s whisky with Jerry’s mushroom milk. Was anything he experienced real?
He finishes his book, this time giving it the happy ending that Fiona wanted.
Brian’s Commentary
There’s gotta be a better way to break a glass bottle. What was with the goats? The business with Ohm’s mother’s death seems a little tacked on and doesn’t have much to do with the main plot.
It’s a really well-done haunted house story mixed with a murder mystery, and most of it makes sense.
Overall, I liked it.
Kevin’s Commentary
It was strange seeing Adam Scott in such a grim and serious role after seeing him in so much comedy, but he does a really good job with it. He’s been in other horror films, such as “Krampus” and “The Monkey,” but even those had a thread of humor. This movie does not.
I liked the script. The elements of bad people doing bad things in tandem with supernatural forces.
It was a winner!
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