Young Sam (Trin Miller) has inherited quite a vast stretch of land
(with a house on it) from the family she never knew she had. You know, Sam
was adopted at a very early age and has no memories from her life before
adoption, and has no clue who her parents were. To check out her land,
Sam invites three of her best friends for the ride, Mark (Brandon
Anthony), Caitlin (Andi Norris) and Roman (Josh Truax) - not a good
combination to begin with because Mark is her ex (it was only a brief
affair though) who hasn't totally gotten over her but has set his eyes on
Caitlin all the same, which in turn ticks off Roman, Caitlin's best buddy
who has always hoped for their friendship develop into a relationship -
and yet Caitlin leans towards Mark ... So yeah, Mark and Roman are
constantly fighting over who's the alpha male - and then enter Eric
(D'Angelo Midili), the place's young, soft-spoken caretaker, who clearly
seems to be interested in Sam, and claims they were childhood friends. Sam
shows interest in Eric as well, maybe only to find out about her own past
- and thus Mark and Roman don't like this new player one bit. From here
on, it only goes downhill, as Sam soon seems to witness scenes of her
past, scenes of violence between her parents, even her father murdering
her mother (Sam didn't know that beforehands), but for some reason, her
parents resemble Mark and Caitlin to the t, so before long, Sam has
difficulties telling apart reality and flashbacks. On top of that, Eric seems to be more than the soft-spoken caretaker he appears to be,
something more sinister, and he seems to be determined to not let Sam go,
ever - and he's pretty good with a knife ... Sader Ridge
is a welcome change to the endless stream of slashers (a genre it at best
vaguely resembles) based on similar concepts: Basically, the film doesn't
go for the jugular right away but takes its time to build up its plot (and
the suspense with it) via clever storytelling, interesting
characters/character constellations, and a general atmosphere of unease
that has one feel something's wrong here before the first murder actually
happens (which is quite late in the movie to be exact). Plus, the
plot manages to twist and turn in quite a few different directions without
losing its story in the process that it manages to actually come up with a
rather unexpected ending. Really good genre entertainment - recommended!
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