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Nina (Karyna Kudzina) has only recently fled her homecountry Belarus
for political reasons with her daughter Isabella (Isabella Bezell) and now
finds herself in the US, an undocumented immigrant with little options to
get ahead in life and at a loss how to care for her daughter. So she
accepts an offer from Mary's (Lorianna Izrailova) organisation that hooks
her up with a caretaker job at Luther's (Chris LaPlanta) house deep deep
in the woods. Now sure, Luther's a bit eccentric, some of his views,
especially on all things deer hunting, are a bit archaic, but then again,
the job pays well enough, Luther might be weird but also seems perfects
harmless and nice, and he and Isabella take an almost instant liking to
one another. Then a stranger appears, Andres (Monte Bezell), an immigrant
from Colombia whose car has broken down nearby. And while Luther first
almost beats his head in, he soon enough rethinks and tries to be the
perfect host - which is very much ok with Nina, as she and Andres have
taken an almost instant liking to one another. And soon enough, Luther's
even inviting a few neighbours over to host a party in Nina and Andres'
honour. Only then Andres suddenly disappears, and when he turns up again
perfectly sliced up as dinner - all with the full approval of all the
party guests - Nina notices something's definitely not alright in Luther's
house and the local community as such ... A very nice shocker
that blends traditional folk horror with the very current theme of the
plight of undocumented immigrants, and spins a very original yarn out of
it, one that's on the intentionally slowburn side at first and relies more
on atmosphere and mystery, to eventually turn into a suspense piece before
going all-out on action in the finale. But what holds this film together,
besides its engaging story, are the very relatalbe performances of both
Karyna Kudzina and Chris LaPlanta in the leads, who have just the right
chemistry for this kind of plot as well. And all of this together makes
for pretty cool and also pretty intelligent, even nuanced genre
entertainment.
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