Meet Bea and Paul. Two young newlyweds fresh from the aisle and off on their honeymoon. These two are so cutesy and touchy-feely it just may make you ill. They’re spending this blessed event at Bea’s family cabin in the woods. Of course they picked the perfect time of year for it. The lake will be secluded and empty! No one around to bother or bear witness! Well, almost no one. Bea’s childhood friend, Will, and his wife, Annie, are still there during the offseason. It’s just a bit odd because Will seems rather violent and Annie seems kinda traumatized. During the night, Paul accidentally wakes up too early to go fishing. He is shocked to find Bea has wandered from the house for no apparent reason. After a frantic search, Paul stumbles upon her in the woods, naked and visibly shaken. Slowly but surely, Bea’s behavior starts to change. She becomes forgetful, strange, and not quite herself…
That’s as much as I can tell you about the plot before getting into spoilers. Trust me, I don’t want to spoil this one for you! I want you to watch it and enjoy it as much as I did! I found this movie to be a most impressive directorial debut for Leigh Janiak. Fans of Game of Thrones will recognize actress Rose Leslie as Bea. Both she and costar Harry Treadaway give fantastic performances here. With barely any supporting actors to bounce off of, they have tremendous chemistry to carry this movie.
It was fun to follow the story from start to finish since it definitely kept me guessing a couple of times as to what was really going on. It also poses some interesting questions to the audience: What do you do for your partner when their behavior unexpectedly gets weird? Like, really weird and strange? Suddenly, the course of true love isn’t so nice and smooth. Do you stick it out when things get tough? Or do you throw in the towel? Do you try to help them? Or maybe you should just run away screaming?
As I told you before, I highly recommend checking out this movie. It’s a slow burn, it’s subtle, and it’s worth it.
~ Sandra (@LilMsMnstr)