A few weeks ago, Stacey (Debbie Sheridan) had her life rearranged. Her mother (Kirbi Mason) died, and Stacey was forced to return to the family home to look after her brother Ben (Jacob Hobbs). And Ben needs some serious looking after, since he hasn’t set foot outside the house in over twenty years — he’s agoraphobic and also suffers from various OCD issues. The amount of hand sanitizer he goes through in a week must be staggering.
A few weeks ago, Stacey (Debbie Sheridan) had her life rearranged. Her mother (Kirbi Mason) died, and Stacey was forced to return to the family home to look after her brother Ben (Jacob Hobbs). And Ben needs some serious looking after, since he hasn’t set foot outside the house in over twenty years — he’s agoraphobic and also suffers from various OCD issues. The amount of hand sanitizer he goes through in a week must be staggering.
Anyway, Stacey living there isn’t going well. Mom did her best to smother Ben, while Stacey, a psychologist, is doing her best to help him become more independent, and naturally this abrupt change is a shock to Ben. Worse, Stacey has a dog named Duke (played by a dog named Roach, poor thing), who is filthy as far as Ben is concerned, not to mention alarmingly unpredictable, and he’s constantly ordering his sister to get rid of the dog.
Into this already tense situation, a box arrives. It’s nothing much to look at, just a small wooden box with a design on top and decorative metal corners. But it was found in the nearby graveyard, next to a tombstone reading simply, “Abbey Grace, 1910-1919,” and where the box goes, trouble follows. After Duke digs it up he starts clashing more and more with Ben, and things rapidly reach a crisis. Fearing that this has happened partly because Ben is getting worse, Stacey asks a colleague, Bridget (Amber Gallaway) to visit and make her own assessment.
Then the movie itself reaches a crisis. Mainly psychological horror to start with, it quickly turns solidly supernatural, complete with slamming doors, mysteriously moving objects, and even glimpses of horrific faces on the security footage. Mom had the house fitted with lots of cameras, you see, which nicely demonstrates her creepiness but doesn’t help the movie any. Even by horror movie standards you have to suspend a lot of disbelief to get past the continuity errors and plot holes.
The good news is that the characters are believable and the family tensions convincing. Until the end it was also an excellent portrayal of agoraphobia and how crippling it can be. If it had stuck with the more subtle horror, leaving you wondering if the strange events were paranormal or only hallucinations, I think it might have been a great movie. As it was, it was entertaining but predictable, and the only real reason most things happen is just because they’re in the script. It’s definitely a fun popcorn flick, though, if that’s what you’re looking for.