(2026)
Directed by Bryce Hirschberg
Starring Alex Mandel, Bryce Hirschberg, Catherine Corcoran, Dallas Hart, Howie Mandel
Bryce Hirschberg directs, co-wrote, produced, edited, and stars in this picture, so you could say he’s put a lot of work into it. While I’m not sure it’s the best title for the film, only from a marketing aspect, it does play into the film and is an interesting story with some depth to it. The picture stars Hirschberg as Aidan, who is taking his younger brother Connor (Alex Mandel) on a little brothers getaway. From a flashback sequence and a call to their father (played by Alex’s real father, comedian Howie Mandel), we know there is something going on with Connor. There was some sort of a bad breakup with a wife or girlfriend, but Connor does not want to talk about it. We can tell that there is something deeper going on though. What seems to be an attempt to do the “relax and get away from it all” at their father’s vacation home, doesn’t seem to be going the way Aidan had expected.
That first evening, there is a knock at the door. A young woman, Lily (Catherine Corcoran) says that she had rented the house for the weekend and seems almost as confused as the brothers. Connor says she could stay, but Aidan is almost insistent that he takes her back to town. But after his car won’t start, it seems she has to stay for the time being. That night, she visits Connor’s bedroom, but not in the manner one would think. Afterwards, Connor is more freaked out than anybody, with Aidan not really listening to what his brother is telling him about Lily’s nocturnal visit. Connor knows something is not right.
As the story progresses, things start to be uncovered, as to why Connor is so upset about his life, why Lily really showed up, and possibly something nobody expected.
There are more than a few sequences that really try to be suspenseful, but I felt they were just more drawn out, hoping to build that suspense, but instead just made feel like I was waiting for whatever was going to happen. But what I did like about the film is that there is a strong point of the brothers really caring for each other and doing what they can to help each other. Even when something completely blindsides them, they are still brothers.
The music by Richard G. Mitchell, who recently did the scores for two of my favorite films of the last decade, Caveat (2020) and Oddity (2024). For this film, while it’s a little different type of score, he still does an excellent job helping to enhance what is going on the screen. More background sounds than music, it’s one of those scores that is helping push the emotions on screen while most viewers aren’t aware of it.
Catherine Corcoran does a great job in her role here, never really showing the audience who she might be, but making this character seem very friendly but also putting you on edge. She started her career working with Peter Jackson on The Lovely Bones (2009), then working with Troma’s Llyod Kaufman on films like Return to Nuke ‘Em High Volume 1 (2013) and Volume 2 (2017). But she is probably best known to modern horror audiences for appearing in Damian Leone’s Terrifier (2016) and Terrifier 2 (2022). The film recently played at the Raindance Film Festival in London, which you can check the festival out by clicking HERE.
