A young woman discovers a girl locked in her father's vault, as masked intruders break into the home to retrieve the girl

Genre: Science Fiction

Length: 11:47

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3 out of 5 stars

Producer/s : Tim Earnheart, Matt Fleming

Director/s : Tim Earnheart, 

Writer/s : Tim Earnheart, 

Actor/s : Gianna-Marie, Corrie Fleming


Party piece

A room has been decimated by a party. It’s a great filmic look, lush with empty glasses filtering coloured lights, funky music, and a sexy woman waking up on a couch. There’s a knocking sound, and she traces the noise to a vault protected by a steel door out of a Bond film.

She knows the combination, but not the bound girl she finds inside. Both have accessories (mittens, earrings) with the same pink lightning motif. Three heavily armed men in creepy masks enter the house. They have badges with an infinity logo and the words “The Institute”. The girls have infinity tattoos. Strange: are they all actually under “The Institute”? There’s cat and mouse around the house to a tick-tock soundtrack that ramps up the tension.

It’s all very taut. All very stylish. All very Live Die Repeat-style intriguing.

And a bit unengaging.

It’s undeniably great fun to watch, but be warned: none of the intrigues are resolved. If the killers wear masks, why sport a logo identifying “The Institute”? Why no bullet holes – surely even rebootable clones (if that’s what the girls are) get exit wounds? How did the knocking noise get past that massive door? Whose party was it? When’s the ricochet coming?

Why were the girls captured and hunted?

And above all, if they’re not really human, and they won’t really die, why should we really care?

I get it. We’re not meant to. We’re just meant to admire some bravura direction and cinematography. For this is expensive show-offy tosh to advertise the Wick meets Ex Machina feature that director Tim Earnheart clearly hankers to make. If you like trailers, you’ll love this. For me, I hope the Tin Man will get to Oz, and be given a heart.

[Screener: trailer only]