This horror title garnered some acclaim last year, which I hope is solely due to its manner of working out the murder mystery it presents.  I must admit that the final five minutes have a certain flair that puts an intriguing, ironic perspective on all that has gone before.  The problem is that all that has gone before is irritating to watch and numbing to experience.  I cannot recommend this movie except for the ending.

Halina Reijn’s movie takes place during a hurricane party.  Several old friends (almost all in their twenties) get together in a mansion to enjoy the sensation of tempting natural fate, but of course they get bored, start to play a murder game while drinking and drug-taking.  The power is disconnected, bad feelings arise and soon people in their little group begin to die violently.  The men go first, leaving the women to argue amongst themselves, chase each other around in the darkness, disclose all the petty jealousies they’ve been. holding onto for years and, eventually, fearing for their own precious lives.  Two survive the night, and they are ready to kill each other as the sun rises.

Imagine an Agatha Christie scenario like And Then There Were None and you can imagine the promise this film holds.  Then sit through an hour-and-a-half of these attractive but extremely whiny, self-destructive, rich pampered brats continually and profanely berate each other and you’ll wish the killer would finish them off, and with alacrity.  Everything the film genuinely tries to do depends on their interactions, and the writers have populated this story with the shallowest characters imaginable.  They’re like reality TV people; nothing they say or do can be trusted.  Relationships are reversed, double crosses are common; one of them even says “triple cross” when talking about her actions.

Here’s another reason this movie fails — its extra character, the hurricane, is barely acknowledged, and the worst it does is knock out the power.  The hurricane should be a force of nature, keeping people inside, breaking windows, causing casualties on its own.  Nope.  It’s barely windy and rainy.  The only superior thing about this movie is its ending — and even that is oddly staged, with a switch of cell phones necessary to explain the facts — when everything is put into a new perspective.  And this new perspective perfectly reflects the milieu of these privileged but stupid characters all too well.  Without this ending the movie is a single star disaster.  ☆ ☆.  7 June 2023.