FILM REVIEW: THE OWNERS (DIR. JULIUS BERG)

26/2/2021

the owners

Director: Julius Berg
Writer(s): Mathieu Gompel, Julius Berg, (with participation of) Geoff Cox
Starring: Maisie Williams, Sylvester McCoy, Rita Tushingham, Andrew Ellis

Get ready for a super tense and shockingly fresh twist on home invasion with THE OWNERS. The seventh ‘Doctor Who’, Sylvester McCoy, and Swinging Sixties icon Rita Tushingham (Doctor Zhivago, A Taste of Honey) take on Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones Arya Stark) in a super entertaining new horror adapted from the graphic novel ‘Une Nuit de Pleine Lune’ from legendary creators Hermann and Yves H. One night in 1990s rural England, a retired couple finds their isolated house besieged by a gang of young criminals. The thieves think it will be easy to make them give up the secret of their safe. But they have no idea the nightmare they’ve gotten into and soon need to fight to escape the house alive. Also starring Ian Kenny (Solo: A Star Wars Story) and Jake Curran (Maze Runner: The Death Cure). Original Soundtrack by Never Not Nothing. THE OWNERS was adapted for screen and directed by Julius Berg (La Forêt).

Signature Entertainment presents The Owners is on Digital Platforms 22nd February and DVD 1st March

In order to give what we believe to be a more unbiased constructive criticism of the piece, the members of Bloodhound Pix are tackling each review as a panel of three. None of the members know the others’ thoughts on the content until after they submit their initial response.

Initial Reaction to the owners

C. Veteran screenwriters will give advice that, while the writer should have a unique voice, each character’s voice should be distinctive. If you were to take away all the names from a script, the reader should be able to identify which person is saying what. This is where The Owners really succeeds. Its use of offbeat characters, both in personalities and physical appearances allow for it to stand out more than the plot offers, which could be easily marketed as the British Don’t Breathe (replacing a blind Stephen Lang with a polite elderly couple). The desperate thieves getting more than they bargained for is not a new idea in the horror world (nor is any idea) but it really strives to make it its own.

Acknowledging the positives, what it boils down to for me is it feels like it’d be a perfect Tales from the Crypt episode (I love the show) that’s 30 minutes, gets you in and out, with “bad” people getting their comeuppance. Not that this setup can’t be stretched to a feature but most of the movie feels like the writers and director filling time to reach that length. There’s so many points where we know that the owners are sinister, the other characters know that the owners are sinister, and the owners know that they all know they’re sinister… yet, we still have regular conversations, with no tension to keep us from not wanting to check our phones.You can have long scenes of dialogue but it still has to be engaging and push the story forward. However, there’s the realization without all the pauses the movie wouldn’t work at all.

The other issue comes with logic. Our main character (Maisie Williams) isn’t incapacitated during most of it, which has us asking why she didn’t easily get away from two elderly people (one with dementia)? They get rid of two key players early on in the movie that could have offered more dynamic and tension building. Finally, we’re given a “big reveal” at the end that’s hinted throughout the story but despite all the foreshadowing it really doesn’t pay off, playing more like an afterthought than a crucial component,

To not add more filler than is already in this, it has a solid-enough setup and characters, pockets of genuine moments within that equal out to a great 30 minutes EC comics-inspired tale but it loses all momentum in attempts to become a feature without proper planning to establish consistent tension.

J. Some dimwitted assholes decide to break into and rob some nice old senior citizens and then shit ends up going about how you would expect. So, not all that groundbreaking in other words. There’s only one character in this entire thing (with a main cast of 6) who I even remotely cared about and that was mostly by default. There’s 3 dimwitted assholes plus Maisie Williams and you want the 3 dimwits offed by about minute 15. Thankfully, it doesn’t take all that long and there was actually one moment of downright shock, which proved the only such moment in this entire thing. And for some reason, the last of the dimwits, Terry, just manages to get stupider and more annoying as this thing goes on. I didn’t think it was possible but trust me, it happens. This is one of those situations where there are no protagonists or there’s a protagonist/antagonist switch but I didn’t care so much about any of that. I kept finding myself wondering how (initially four) 20-somethings could not over power two 70-somethings especially when the 20-somethings had weapons and the 70’s didn’t… I dunno, this thing then gets convoluted as all hell with wrapping up as the Terry character does something else completely fucking stupid and then we find out what’s been kept in the impenetrable safe. Unlike the briefcase in Pulp Fiction we are shown what’s in the safe and left with a reaction that’s something like, “huh?” Think Don’t Breathe but not as tense or interesting. The Owners was more humorous although I’m not sure that’s what they were going for. Fuck, maybe they were on second thought…

K. The Owners is really solidly crafted and written, up to a point. I know my colleagues have surely laid out the plot already, so I won’t retread that ground but the premise of a robbery where the tables are turned and the hunters become the hunted isn’t terribly original but it certainly can be a fun setup to work with. The first third of the movie makes good use of it, introducing characters that are at least interesting, if not very sympathetic. The reveal that the 20-something robbers know the old couple, whose house they’ve broken into, is some of the best writing in the piece. It deepens the proceedings and provides insight into the robbers’ motivations. This whole section of the film, mostly confined to the basement, is the most tense and effective sequence, culminating in a wholly unexpected turn of events (and a brutally awesome practical effect). Once the film begins to subtly suggest that the old couple are, in fact, more dangerous than their would-be captors, the film resets the slow burn tension. But the reveals happen too quickly, though the film pretends they don’t or finds insignificant ways of prolonging the proceedings. While the details of the old couple’s sinister ways are never quite spelled out clearly enough to support the rest of the movie. The filmmaking style poses as clever but the writing doesn’t really back it up. There’s also an unmotivated shift to a different aspect ratio for the last 30-40 minutes, that felt jarring and unnecessary.

Response to the owners

C. I think we are all in agreement that, while initially having a fresh approach to a common horror setup through interesting characters and dialogue, most of the movie seems to stall in order to reach a feature runtime. The big reveals and twists are foreshadowed too much that they become predictable and underwhelming. However, it’s still enjoyable and worth checking out when it’s available to stream for free.

J. It’s extremely well made and if you like Don’t Breathe, you’ll find there’s enough difference here with a similar set up to satisfy your home invasion hunger. I’d also be interested to see how many of you hated the character of Terry as much as I did by the time the credits rolled.

K. All in all, it’s a well made film but the script is where it falters. The actors do their best with the material but it doesn’t quite pop without the proper narrative support. As we’ve all pointed out, the whole thing falls apart once the tables are turned and the film tries to stall us for 40 minutes, promising some big reveal that ends up being confounding rather than clever. I’d love to see what this creative team could come up with if they had a more thought out story to bring to the screen.

Bloodhound’s average score: 2 ½ out of 5

Signature Entertainment presents The Owners is on Digital Platforms 22nd February and DVD 1st March

Bloodhound Pix is made up of: Craig Draheim, Josh Lee, and Kyle Hintz