Dir: Zach Cregger, US, 2025, 129 mins
Cast: Julia Garner, James Brolin, Cary Christopher, Alden Ehrenreich, Amy Madigan, Benedict Wong
Review by .Carol Allen
It takes place in one of those ultra quiet American suburbs comprising gabled houses with large lawns between them and the road. In one of those houses Alex (Cary Christopher) lives with his mum and dad. He is the only child who doesn’t flee into the night but turns up at school the next morning, the only one in an empty classroom. Why?
Writer/director Zach Cregger uses this premise to take us into a well constructed and intriguing mystery cum horror film, somewhat in the tradition of Stephen King, which gets more horrific as the story goes on. He tells it from the point of view of several of the people involved, each one revealing more of the mystery, sometimes playing the same scene from the point of view of a different character.
First there’s Justine (Julia Garner), teacher of the class that has gone missing, who is having a love affair with both a local policeman Paul (Alden Ehrenreich) and the vodka bottle. Is she responsible? A lot of the frightened and angry parents seem to think so.
One of them is Archer Graff (James Brolin) whose take on the situation we then have, followed by Paul the policeman, James, a homeless junkie (Austin Abrams), who stumbles upon more than he’s bargained for and the kindly school administrator (Benedict Wong). And then there’s that weird old woman lurking around (Amy Madigan), sporting an almost clown like overdone make up and a blatantly false red wig, who says she is Alex’s aunt.
It’s a construction which works like a well oiled machine, each section exposing more of the story up until the violent and bloody climax. That final reveal is somewhat over the top and actually funny in a black humour sort of way but horror fans will have no quibble with that. And as a piece of story telling the film certainly holds the attention throughout.
