Gone in the Night

I saw Gone in the Night, starring Winona Ryder-Stranger Things_tv, Beetlejuice; John Gallagher Jr.-Underwater, Peppermint; Owen Teague-Montana Story, the It movies; Brianne Tju-I Know What You Did Last Summer_tv, 47 Meters Down:Uncaged and Dermot Mulroney-Hanna_tv, Young Guns. This is a mystery/horror thriller. Winona and John are a couple that have been dating for about a year and decide to rent a cabin in the woods to get away from everything. When they get there, another couple, Owen and Brianne, are already there-it seems that it was double booked. They all decide to share the cabin and everything is hunky dory until the next morning, when Winona awakens to find John and Brianne are gone-in the night. Owen-crying like a baby-tells Winona that he caught the two making out and they left together in the middle of the night. Winona goes home but decides something is fishy and wants to track down the owner of the cabin, Dermot, and find Owen or Brianne and hopefully find out what happened to John-she can't seem to reach him by phone. Dermot becomes her sidekick in her search. The events are told out of sequence using flashbacks so you learn what really happened by the end. It's rated R for language and bloody images and has a running time of 1 hour & 30 minutes. It's a little predictable-I figured it out about half way through-but it's not a bad movie. I wouldn't buy it on DVD but it would be alright as a rental.

I mean, this was totally pointless. Why make this movie? Whats it all about? Soo boring and total waiste of my time. Some strange family in the woods that wanna live forever and kidnapp a random guy. Come on...please...... this was baaaad. I gave ut a few stars because i like Winona...

Greetings again from the darkness. There is a fine line between movies that cheat and those that cleverly keep us guessing. The first feature from writer-director Eli Horowitz and Matthew Derby seems to fully embrace cheating as a storytelling structure, relegating us to merely observing rather than guiding us as engaged participants. The film opens with a severely mismatched couple driving deep into the woods for a weekend getaway. We've all heard that "opposites attract", but Kath (an excellent Winona Ryder) and Max (John Gallagher Jr) have been together for a year, and not only do they have opposite life goals, the two can barely hold a conversation. It's not just awkward, it makes no sense that these two could have co-existed for so long. Their drive leads to a 'cabin in the woods' set-up, as another couple is already settled in. The double-booking leads to another awkward exchange with Max pleading to let them stay the night ... two unfamiliar couples sharing the cabin. Taciturn and creepy Al (Owen Teague) and overly exuberant Greta (Brianne Tiu) agree and soon the four are drinking together and playing an adult board game that exposes more personality divides. Despite dating the younger Max, or perhaps because of it, Kath is transitioning into a quieter middle-age life stage. Max is a childish man constantly pressuring Kath to be 'more adventurous. Al and Greta have an "open" relationship, and she's unapologetically flirty with Max, while Al mostly scowls. Kath heads off to bed before the others, and when she wakes up the next morning, an upset Al informs her that Max and Greta took off together. So, Kath does what no real person would do. She heads back to her life as a horticulturalist and enjoys the solitude ... right up until she finally reacts the way every other human would have initially. She wonders why long-time boyfriend Max didn't bother to call or text or mail a postcard. This kicks off her (too late) mission of solving the mystery, and it leads her to connect with the mysterious Barlow (Dermot Mulroney), the owner of the cabin. Kath and Barlow go on a stakeout and end up telling personal secrets to each other - including details of the genetic illness that affected his father and may impact Barlow as well. They seem to connect despite the oddity that brought them together. Director Horowtiz abuses the flashback crutch by filling in the many otherwise unexplainable gaps that exist in the actual timeline. It's during these segments when we learn about the characters and circumstances that brought them together, although, to the film's credit, it does allow us to experience the final reveal as it happens. There are some nice touches throughout, including shots of a shipping container behind the cabin that is visible from multiple spots and at various times. Kath's work with plants provides a certain symmetry, and Barlow's backstory is interesting. Perhaps the most unique element here is with only five main characters, the story involves four distinct generations: boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z (maybe not exact birthdates, but close enough). The cabin in the woods put us on high alert early on, but the reliance on flashbacks taints the twists to such an extreme that the ultimate reveal of 'the cow' is a bit of a letdown, and still feels like cheating.

The second the other couple appears, they both look sinister af. Surprise! They were responsible for the disappearance of Kath's (Winona Ryder's character) boyfriend. In a movie like this, you should never be one step ahead of it. I was ten steps ahead of it. I'm not a person who tries to outsmart a movie. I prefer to be surprised. But there are no surprises to be had with this movie. None. It even shows the boyfriend having already met the couple thirty minutes into the movie, just to spell it out for anyone who might even be remotely curious as to whether or not they are guilty. I knew that the owner of the cabin was in on it as well. Why introduce him, have him show such a strong interest in helping WR's character, if he wasn't going to tie into the "twist" somehow? He rented the cabin to both couples for the same night, and not one question as to why or how that happened? When he mentioned his father died from a genetic blood disorder and that he was experimenting with his own treatment, that filled in the WHY part. The couple. The guy is probably the father of one of them, and they took WR's boyfriend so he could use his blood to experiment with. Still doesn't sound silly? Turns out, the father's not dying. He's using Kath's boyfriend to stay and feel younger. Huh? What? He was looking for a cure to his father's illness and accidentally discovered the fountain of youth? He didn't look any younger than his character would have been, unless he was playing a character in his 80s. Being that his son was in his early to mid 20's, I don't think that to be the case. That reveal rendered the entire movie to be one gigantic waste of time. Then when Kath says that she wants to do it too, with her boyfriend lying right next to her, the dad and son just say, "Okay!" and turn on the psycho girlfriend. "Oh no! Kath tricked us! She wasn't cool with us draining her boyfriend's blood after all!" Also, matching blood types don't seem to be an issue in this movie's universe. This movie is as dumb as every character in it. The girlfriend was psychotic for absolutely no reason. This movie exists for no reason. I initially gave it 4 stars, because I like Winona Ryder and John Gallagher Jr. As actors. The more I started writing this review, the less stars I wanted to give it. Those two actors deserve much better than this. Dermot Mulroney, as well. I'm giving it three stars for those three actors, and that's being generous to this movie. Damn, this movie is dumb.