Movies
[DVD Review] Sony’s Infectious Thriller ‘Retreat’
Director Carl Tibbettes describes Retreat as a ‘character piece’ – which is accurate but possibly missing the word ‘predictable’. With a story about three people trapped in a house and a pandemic looming outside the door, a film already has a lot going for it. Add in stars like Cillian Murphy and Thandie Newton and you should be golden.
Sadly, Retreat is just as I stated: predictable. A claustrophobic tale of a couple trying to mend their relationship – only to be brought back together by life or death situations – has already been overused, even with well-rounded actors, as have infectious global pandemics. Perfect framing and location can’t make up for bad writing.
Retreat is very well done in terms of editing, location, and acting, but the story itself is almost too simple. Perhaps it’s the simplicity that drew the stars to it – this question may or may have not been answered in the Making-Of Featurette on the DVD. After several minutes, the reel becomes tiresome – with the director and crew fawning over the story as if it was the most unique piece on the planet. The tale of finding the right location to film at was great, and while the English countryside of a remote island is beautiful, beyond that the praise becomes overwhelmingly dull – and further information that could have been gathered by the makers was washed over with one party wanting to kiss another party’s ass. Maybe that’s how all making of pieces actually are and I’ve just never had the pleasure of sitting through one for such a predictable film, making it an uneventful experience. Unfortunately, add just a gallery of stills and that’s it for the DVD extras. Not even a trailer.
I must comment on the box art. You know the painting that is revealed at the end of Ghostbusters II with all of the guys in togas sitting with baby Oscar? Remember how embarrassed you felt when you saw that? Retreat’s box art is close. It’s not photoshopped bad; it’s just so piss poor thrown together that I’m embarrassed. In the center is our villain with what looks like a crappy photoshopped wound (ok, so there is bad Photoshop), looking halfway between drunk and menacing. Thandie Newton stands behind one shoulder, startled that she was once on ER and now she’s in this movie. And behind the other is Cillian Murphy, looking confused as he thought he already made this movie and reminiscing about that other movie where he got to act like he was doing it with Scarlett Johansson.
While I wasn’t bored out of my mind watching the movie, I did see the end 30 minutes in – and felt I was watching the last 60 only to make sure I was right.
Score: 4/10
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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