THE LODGE (2019) made me cry within the first ten minutes, it made me get mad at the dad without even questioning it, it made me feel awkward for the kids, it made me low-key judge their soon-to-be step-mom, it frightened me, it disgusted me, it shocked me, this movie had zero chill, zero.
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
The Lodge made it to my queue thanks to the many recommendations I got on IG. All of the opinions toward the movie were positive which I found refreshing, but I did not remember anyone saying the film was brutal, like, what-just-happened-I-was-not-expecting-that-and-oh-my-god-I-cannot-stop-watching-it brutal (so brutal!) which I found extraordinary.
I love that. Getting amazed by a movie I already knew was going to be good, watching it evolve into something better than expected, appreciating the story, the acting, the setting, the ambiance, the music, the editing, the realism, oh the realism – I love all of that stuff!
So the mom, Laura Hall, had a very sad ending and I felt so upset about it because it seemed like she had no time to deal with her new reality and her emotions. She was separated from her husband, Richard Hall, who was already in a serious relationship with a, ahem, let’s call her a person of interest-ish (more on that later), so poor Laura gave us the impression that she was holding on to the idea of getting back to her husband but when she went to his house to drop off their kids, Mia and Aiden, she was asked by him to finalize the divorce because he and -ish were going to get married in a few months. And so without a word Laura left and went back to her house and put a gun to her mouth.
So the dad, Richard Hall, was a “free” man and an asshole too; left a marriage; got into a new relationship; told his kids six months after their mother’s suicide that he and -ish were going to get married; was oblivious to the fact that the kids still blamed him and her for their beloved mom’s death; took the kids to their special family vacation lodge for Christmas knowing he would leave them alone with -ish for a couple of days due to work; and when he finally returned to the lodge he got shot by the very questionable -ish because of course she did.
So -ish, or better known as Grace, began as one of the subjects of Richard’s book about cults because she, at 12-years of age, was the only member who did not commit suicide at the deadly cult headed by her own father. Later on, she went from being the book’s subject to being Richard’s object of affection (ew, I hate that I wrote that #cheesyAF). Grace was an enigma, really, all we knew was that she was weird as fuck and not in a good way. And religion, she hated religion and often got nosebleeds when triggered by it. And meds, she needed lots of them to function every day.
(Maybe it was me or something, but due to the many murderers in my life [ha-ha, I’m funny!] I can tell when someone is lying or hiding something [actually, that part is not a joke] so after watching the found footage from the cult, and after seeing how suspish Grace was acting, and how all the dead bodies had the word SIN written in the same style and font, well, like I said, suspish… okay, okay, Grace did it, you made me say it… I know Grace killed all 39 cult members!)
Right, let’s come back to present day when Grace was looking after Richard’s kids at the lodge while he was at work. Grace started sort of obsessing with the religious objects all throughout the place and had crazy eyes and kept taking her meds and having nightmares with flashbacks of the cult’s mass suicide. Long story short, Grace lost her shit, hard, and made us (me) believe that she was the one creating all the chaos intentionally (or unintentionally) at the lodge by hiding all the personal belongings—her meds included—as well as discarding all the food, shutting off the power and water, killing the dog, and playing mind games by printing obituaries of herself and the kids to make them believe they were all dead already…
**SECOND WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD**
So the kids, Mia and Aiden, were actually the ones making Grace lose her shit, you see, the kids hated her and were taking revenge on behalf of their mom. The kids were the ones creating the chaos by hiding everything and shutting off the utilities and pretending they were all dead and in limbo, with their souls trapped in the snowed in lodge. When the little shits realized they had gone too far, it was too late, Grace was no longer in her right state of mind and decided to “save” them by freeing their souls with death. Grace had a last supper with the bounded Mia and Aiden and also with Richard—already dead but nonetheless present at the table—and with such a calm demeanor she placed the same gray tape, once used on her former cult members, on the mouth of the kids with the same word SIN written over it. (I TOLD YOU SHE’D DONE IT!)
In Love and Fear,
-Marath
P.S. “You need to sacrifice something for The Lord.”
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